Greeks beisl
The Greeks Beisl is one of the oldest restaurants in Vienna . It is located at Fleischmarkt 11 next to the Holy Trinity Greek Church .
history
History of the inn
The Greeksbeisl derives its name from the merchants of the Levant who lived in the area around the building and who testify to the intensive trade relationship between Vienna and the Orient since the Babenbergs.
The first written mention of the Greeks Beisl comes from the year 1447. Around 1500 the today's Greeks Beisl was called Gasthaus Zum yellow Adler (1636). Later the building appears as "Gasthaus Rotes Dachl" - this house name is said to be associated with a tower of the former city fortifications from around 1200, which may have been included in the late Gothic building in the residential tower as early as the 14th century. The present-day Greek pub with the name “Zum Goldenen Engel” (1762) or “Reichenberger Beisl” appeared. When Greek and Levantine merchants settled at the meat market around the middle of the 17th century, the area they inhabited was called the Greek Quarter. This is how the inn got its current name Greeksbeisl . However, Viennese cuisine has always been served there.
The year 1852 is historically important when the innkeeper at the time, Leopold Schmied, decided to bring the completely new “Pilsner Urquell” from Pilsen in Bohemia to Vienna and serve it for the first time. The Greeksbeisl is still the parent house of the Pilsner Urquell in Vienna. In earlier times, however, the current entrance at the meat market was not used as the main entrance, but the side entrance in the Greeks Lane. The street-side rooms facing the meat market were used as business premises. There was always a garden to the back of the Greek alley on the cobblestone square.
In the 17th century, the bailiff and bagpiper Marx Augustin ("The Dear Augustin") performed here regularly .
According to the legend, the "Dear Augustin", a Viennese bank singer, bagpiper and impromptu poet, made music here. In 1679 he is said to have been found lying on the street after extensive carousing and to have been thrown into a plague pit near the church of St. Ulrich. When he gave another sign of life, they took him out and continued his life.
He is remembered by an Augustin figure sitting under the doormat at the entrance to the locality, who can be thrown money into his hat.
During renovation work in 1963, three stone balls were discovered, which the vernacular traced back to the Turkish siege in 1529. But they are more likely to be traced back to the bombardment of the city at the time of the Turkish siege of 1683. They were walled in to the right of the staircase to the Augustin-Stuben and can still be seen by guests today.
Just like the building, the inn has grown over the centuries. The restaurant has a total of eight guest rooms, each from a different time and in a different style.
Ground floor:
- “Zitherstüberl”: located on the meat market and the oldest part of the business
- "Mark Twain" room: The listed room in which many famous guests have immortalized themselves with their signatures
- "Round room": with a large, old, round table that was the regular table of Viennese celebrities
- Music room: located on the Hafnersteig in the lower part of the building and provided with artistic window panes
- Carlsbad room: large, high dining room with souvenirs from Carlsbad
Augustin Stuben: includes the "candles room", "Biedermeier room" and "hunting room" on the first floor were originally an apartment and were adapted for the restaurant. The ambience of a historic bourgeois apartment was retained.
The medieval curbstones and flying buttresses outside the building and the picturesque pawlatschen passages inside the courtyard are noteworthy.
History of the building
The now listed building on the corner of Fleischmarkt and Greeksgasse was first recorded in 1350 as the property of a wealthy “knightly citizen” who could count several properties in Vienna among his possessions. In 1385 the building was sold to the Lilienfeld monastery together with the adjacent properties. At that time, the adjacent streets and squares had other names ("Krongasse", "Zur Bürgermusterung", "Oberer Hafnersteig" or "auf dem Steig").
It is not clear what function the tower in the courtyard has. The lower part could have served as a warehouse, the upper part for residential purposes. However, the tower should not have been part of the medieval city fortifications that ran near the building. Viewed from outside and inside, it can be seen that the building has different levels within the floors. The reason for this is that the building was not built all at once, but has "grown" over the centuries.
In the building itself, a narrow spiral staircase leads to the upper floors, where today some of the dining rooms of the restaurant ("candlestick room", "Biedermeier room", "hunting room") are located.
The cellars of the building, now used as wine cellars, were not built all at once, but in several stages. The oldest area, in the part of the building facing today's Schwedenplatz, dates back to the 13th century and even longer. "A remnant of the wall, formed from large hewn blocks, may even have been built in Roman times."
The basement of the building was part of a network of cellars that connected large parts of Vienna's inner city. These corridors were last used in the Second World War in order to be able to cover larger distances without danger. However, the access in the basement to the neighboring building is bricked up today.
Prominent guests
For centuries, the Greek Beisl was a meeting place for many artists, scholars and politicians, such as: Marx Augustin and other famous guests such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , Franz Schubert , Richard Wagner , Johann Strauss , Richard Strauss, Johannes Brahms , Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller , Mark Twain , Franz Grillparzer , Johann Nestroy , Moritz von Schwind , Fjodor Iwanowitsch Schaljapin , Karl Lueger , Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin , Albin Egger-Lienz , Oskar Kokoschka , Rainer Maria Rilke , Luciano Pavarotti , Johnny Cash , Barry Manilow , Engelbert Humperdinck , Phil Collins , Gunther Philipp , Mario Adorf , Karlheinz Böhm , Egon Schiele , Gottfried Helnwein , Riccardo Muti , Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Bismarck , Serge Jaroff , Johnny Weissmüller , Sven Anders Hedin , Harald Serafin , Franz von Suppè , Hans Philipp August Albers , immortalized himself with autographs in the Mark Twain room . Mark Twain also became a regular guest at the Greek pub during the time he was in Vienna.
literature
- Paul Rotterdam : Paul Rotterdam. Exhibition 1965. Catalog, Gallery in the Greek Beisl, 1965.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article "Der liebe Augustin" in the newspaper Wiener Bilder on September 9, 1908, online at ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online
- ^ The Greek Beisl , from the series Archeology and Building Industry of the Research Society Wiener Stadtarchäologie, Elfriede Hannelore Huber, undated
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 38 " N , 16 ° 22 ′ 37" E