High Bridge (Vienna)

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The Hohe Brücke is located in Vienna's 1st district, Inner City, and spans the Tiefen Graben along the Wipplingerstraße .

history

The Hohe Brücke as seen from the Tiefen Graben
The Nepomuk Chapel on the High Bridge 1725. Engraving by Salomon Kleiner .

As early as the Roman Empire , a Limes road crossed the Ottakringer Bach at this point . The Hohe Brücke was first mentioned in a document in 1295, at that time as a simple wooden structure. After the Ottakringer Bach and later an arm of the Alserbach running in the same bed were diverted around 1200 and the trickle was subsequently filled in, a brick bridge with a Gothic pointed arch served as a road bridge from the middle of the 15th century. In the 18th century, a chapel was built on the bridge for a statue dedicated to St. Nepomuk (patron saint of bridges). A dedicatory inscription on the chapel contained the year 1725 as a chronogram .

From 1857 to 1858 the high bridge was rebuilt. The building, built in the neo-Gothic style, was made of bricks and provided with a stone parapet as a railing. The bridge arch was designed as a Tudor arch , the chapel was not rebuilt.

The demolition of the bridge began on September 28, 1903, as a new building had become necessary as a result of the widening of Wipplingerstrasse. The first of the two lanes was opened in November 1903, the second in March 1904. The solemn laying of the keystone took place on March 11, 1904 in the presence of Mayor Karl Lueger .

The bridge structure was built in Art Nouveau style according to plans by the architect Josef Hackhofer , and it was carried out by Waagner Biro and the court architect Heinz Gerl. The outer fronts were clad with marble and the bars of the iron railing were decorated. The two predecessor structures were shown in the corner areas. The inner side walls are designed like shop portals with roller shutters, which are, however, purely decorative as the depth of the room behind the roller shutters is only around half a meter.

From 1979 to 1981 the bridge was completely overhauled, and in 1996 it was repaired again, including a new lighting concept for the bridge. Today the building is a listed building and has a roadway with sidewalks on both sides. A staircase leads from Wipplingerstraße to the Tiefen Graben below.

Old views of the high bridge

  • The high bridge in the 18th century

  • The high bridge with chapel, before 1857

  • The high bridge around 1900

  • Engraving in the corner area of ​​the Hohe Brücke, depicting the bridge before 1857

Web links

Commons : Hohe Brücke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Wehdorn , Ute Georgeacopol-Winischhofer: Architectural monuments of technology and industry in Austria . Volume 1: Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland . Böhlau, Vienna / Graz (among others) 1984, ISBN 3-205-07202-2 , p. 6.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 46 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 7 ″  E