Bill Grah Park

The Bill-Grah-Park is a park in the district part of Essling of 22 Viennese municipal district Donaustadt . It is located in the historic center of Essling and is named after the German jazz musician Bill Grah .

history

Pond in Bill-Grah-Park

In the area of what is now Bill-Grah-Park, at the latest by the beginning of the 19th century, the Essling fire pond was located . The pond was significantly reduced in size in 1934, giving it its current, round shape. In 1992 the pond was renatured and the surrounding green area was redesigned into a small park. The alley that borders the park to the east was named in 1997 after the jazz musician Fatty George , who grew up in Essling . Due to a municipal council resolution of March 9, 1999, the park was named after the German jazz pianist and vibraphonist Bill Grah, who lived in the 22nd district from 1955 and had worked with Fatty George, among others.

Location and description

Jazz sculpture

Memorial stone for Bill Grah

The approximately 3680 m² Bill-Grah-Park has an almost triangular base and is bordered by Esslinger Hauptstrasse, Gartenheimstrasse and Fatty-George-Gasse. In the central to western area of the park is the Bill-Grah-Park-Teich , into which a wooden walkway protrudes along a sidewalk. To improve the oxygen supply to the animals that live in the pond, there is a water cycle, the cascade of which is located in the northern bank area. Starting from the level of the sidewalk at the edge of the park, it slopes down to the pond below. There are also some park benches and a non-fenced playground with some play equipment for children. A Salettl , which mainly served as a meeting place for young people and was finally destroyed by strangers after repeated vandalism in 2009, was followed in 2010 by a robust, more vandal-resistant variant with a green roof.

The jazz sculpture, unveiled on September 3, 2000, is located in the western corner of the park . On the initiative of jazz lover Roman Kuntner, the almost three-meter-high and about eleven-tonne sculpture was made by Leopold Grausam and apprentices from the stonemasonry workshop of the Vienna cemeteries . It shows the most important musical instruments used in jazz and is surrounded by a flower bed and a low fence.

A memorial stone at the edge of a sidewalk commemorates Bill Grah. A metal inscription board contains a short biography of Grah and describes his musical work.

South of the park, on the other side of Esslinger Hauptstrasse, is the Jazzpark Essling, another place in Essling that is dedicated to jazz. The Kulturfleckerl Essling association , which operates the Kulturstadl and the Fatty George Jazzmus jazz museum in the Jazzpark , has organized an annual maypole festival with jazz music since 2000, at which a maypole is set up in Bill-Grah-Park .