Beethovenplatz (Vienna)
The Beethovenplatz is a place with gardens and remarkable buildings in the first Viennese district, the Inner City .
history
The area of today's Beethovenplatz was part of the suburb in front of the Stubentor in the Middle Ages . The glacis in front of the city wall , a field of fire to be kept clear , has been here since the 16th century . In 1850 the area was incorporated into the city of Vienna.
In the course of the demolition of the city wall approved by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1857 and the construction of the Vienna Ringstrasse as a splendid boulevard around the old town, the area between today's Schubertring , then Kolowratring, and the parallel, newly created Lothringerstrasse on the left bank of the The Vienna River was parceled out and built from 1865 onwards. The area of a larger city block was not built in, but left out as space. The city expansion fund gave the plot to the City of Vienna free of charge in 1873.
In 1880 the Beethoven monument designed by Caspar von Zumbusch was unveiled here; in the same year the place appeared in Lehmann's Vienna address book for the first time as Beethovenplatz.
The Unterer Wientallinie of the Stadtbahn has been running on the right bank of the Vienna river since June 30, 1899, and since 1978 the U4 underground line , which serves the Stadtpark station at the northern end of Lothringerstraße , which is very close to Beethovenplatz (e). By 1899, the vaulting of the Wien River and the tram was completed in this section. Around 1970 an underground car park was opened under the park originally designed by Lothar Abel, for the construction of which old trees had to be felled.
Park and Beethoven Monument
The majority of the area of Beethovenplatz is taken up by the 3700 m² Beethoven Park, in the center of which is the monument to the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven who worked in Vienna by Caspar von Zumbusch . After the river had been vaulted, in 1899 the monument in the middle of the square was turned 180 degrees in the direction of the now more important Lothringerstraße, which was used by tram lines from 1902 to 1980.
The original model of the monument is now in the foyer of the Vienna Konzerthaus , which is diagonally opposite Beethovenplatz on Lothringerstrasse . The strictly historical monument consists of a stone pedestal by Eduard Hauser, the seated figure of Beethoven made of bronze and accompanying figures, also made of bronze, depicting a bound Prometheus and a Victoria as well as nine putti as allegories for Beethoven's symphonies.
building
No. 1: The most important building on Beethovenplatz is the Academic Gymnasium (as an extension of Christinengasse ) on its south-western front, built in the neo-Gothic style by Friedrich von Schmidt with the participation of Wilhelm Köllig and Josef Hlávka in 1863–1866 . This is Schmidt's first neo-Gothic secular building in Vienna, which became programmatic for further neo-Gothic secular architecture. The grammar school was designed on the model of a medieval cloister courtyard with arcades around it. The coats of arms of the crown lands of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy are on the main facade . Inside, a statue of Moses by Vincenz Pilz in the fountain house and a war memorial by Joseph Josephu (1936) should be mentioned. The vestibule is decorated with floral decorative painting by Karl Jobst .
The traditional grammar school, which was located on Bäckerstraße until 1866 and founded in 1552, had numerous prominent students over the years. Commemorative plaques were put up for some of them, such as Franz Schubert , Erwin Schrödinger , Lise Meitner , Hans Kelsen , Peter Altenberg , Arthur Schnitzler , Richard Beer-Hofmann , Hugo von Hofmannsthal , the Romanian writer and Foreign Minister Titu Maiorescu and the first Czechoslovakian President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk .
No. 2: Here (as an extension of Kantgasse) there is a exposed brick building in the neo-renaissance style by Friedrich Schachner from 1868/1869. It is part of the Schubertring 5 and 7 block, which was successively transferred from the Girozentrale in 1939–1970 (see house No. 3) and Bank of the Austrian Savings Banks was acquired and used by their legal successor Erste Bank 1997-2005 and then sold. A Ritz-Carlton Hotel was opened here in 2012 .
No. 3: The former Palais Gutmann (also an extension of Kantgasse) was built by Carl Tietz for Wilhelm Ritter von Gutmann in the neo-Renaissance style in 1869–1871 . Particularly noteworthy is the interior with a first floor apartment with excellent historical furnishings. In 1941 the building was converted by Franz Klimscha. In Lehmann's Vienna address book, 1942 edition, the house was registered as the seat of the Girozentrale of the Ostmärkische Sparkassen and the Ostmärkischen Sparkassen- und Giroverband . It was a bank building until 2005 and has been a hotel since 2012 (see house no. 2).
No. 4: The building by Johann Romano and August Schwendenwein from 1869/70 (as an extension of Fichtegasse ) also has a beautiful interior, including the only known interior painting by Leopold Carl Müller (1870), which depicts an allegory of the seasons.
On the side facing Lothringerstraße, Beethovenplatz is directly adjacent to this street, which has a very wide, green median strip, without any construction. (Up until 1980, three tram lines operated on the edge of the central part of the street on the side of the concert hall.)
gallery
Beethoven monument by Caspar von Zumbusch (1880)
Putti, performing the 9 symphonies of Beethoven
Academic high school (1863–66) run by Friedrich von Schmidt
Interior of the academic high school
Palais Gutmann, Beethovenplatz 3
.JPG)
literature
- Felix Czeike (Ed.): Beethovenplatz. In: Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 1, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , p. 306 ( digitized version ).
- Dehio Handbook Vienna I. District - Inner City . Berger, Horn 2003.
- Peter Autengruber : Parks and Gardens in Vienna . Promedia, Vienna 2008.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 7.5 ″ N , 16 ° 22 ′ 36.4 ″ E