Opera passage

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Opernpassage after the renovation in 2013

The Opernpassage in the Inner City in Vienna is a Grade II listed ( list entry ) pedestrian underpass under the ring road at the height of the Vienna State Opera , which opened the 1955th Since the opening of the underground in 1978, the Kärntnertorpassage has been connected to it, which leads to the Karlsplatz underground station and the Resselpark. The West Passage branches off from here in the direction of the Secession .

history

Memorial plaque in the Opernpassage - exit Sirk-Ecke
In the Opernpassage, 1973

The volume of traffic on Vienna's Ringstrasse, which was built in 1857, is 30,000 cars a day (as of 2009). But already with the boom in private transport and the increasing volume of traffic in the years after the Second World War , it was so busy that the Viennese city planning - in accordance with the traffic ideology of the time - decided not to obstruct cars by crossing pedestrians and pedestrians into the underground: Construction of the traffic structure began on March 7, 1955. On November 4, 1955, one day before the State Opera reopened, Mayor Franz Jonas opened the Opernpassage, which was then the first Vienna underpass. The last two escalators were not put into operation until December 2, 1957.

The oval structure, artistically designed by the architect Adolf Hoch , extends over a length of 56 meters along the Kärntner Straße and a width of 51 meters along the Ringstraße. The 2.9 meter high ceiling is supported in two concentric circles by pillars around seven meters apart. There were also 19 shops here. The center of the pedestrian underpass, clad in brown marble, was a round coffee house, which was later converted into a fast pizzeria and then an anchor bread branch. The original passage was accessible via seven entrances, each with a fixed staircase and two escalators - the first in Vienna. In order to ventilate the pedestrian underpass, a 320-meter-long fresh air duct was also built four meters deep under the Ringstrasse in the Burggarten . The heating took place from the heating plant of the Hofburg.

On August 30, 1955, the passage was officially named “Opernpassage” by the Vienna City Senate, and the population was given the nickname “Jonasgrotte”. In 1961, the "Jonasreindl" - the Schottenpassage, with a connection to the Schottentor underground station - as well as the passages at Bellariastrasse and Babenbergerstrasse followed . The passage at the Albertina was finally opened in 1964. The Babenberger Passage (a "club location" since 2003) and the Albertinapassage (a dinner and jazz club since 2011) could not hold up in the long term due to a lack of underground connections and were replaced by pedestrian crossings at street level ( zebra crossings ). The Opernpassage, which is connected to the underground lines U1 , U2 and U4 , is a still functioning traffic structure due to the high footfall and also has commercial life.

The fact that the Opernpassage was a high-ranking urban development showpiece for those in charge of the City of Vienna is also shown by the numerous high-ranking guests who visited it.

  • On January 13, 1956, the City Council for Building in Munich, Professor Doctor Högg and three employees inspected numerous traffic structures. Her main interest was in various intersection structures.
  • On July 31, 1957, the Magistrate Director of Adelaide ( Australia ) also visited Vienna during a world tour. Here he was particularly fascinated by the opera passage and that he would also like to see it in Australia.
  • On June 18, 1959, Gulzarilal Nanda , Minister of Planning and Public Works in India, visited the Opera Passage on a study visit .
  • On September 2, 1964, a delegation of around 30 local politicians from Basel visited Vienna to inspect a number of traffic structures.
  • On July 30, 1965, the Mayor of Mainz , Jockel Fuchs , visited Vienna with the City Councilor, the Building Director and other members to inspect the newly built intersection structures.

The extensions towards Karlsplatz and the Secession were built in 1968–1978 under the direction of Kurt Schlauss .

The passage

Underground systems in the Karlsplatz area
Kärntnertorpassage
The southern exit of the Kärntnertorpassage
Media installation Pi in the Westpassage

The oval Opernpassage is below the Ringstrasse / Kärntner Strasse intersection. Since 1978, the 215-meter-long and originally 5-meter-wide Kärntnertorpassage has been built onto the Opernpassage to the south . It crosses the underground Wien River and leads outside on the western edge of the Resselpark. The 200-meter-long West Passage branches off from the passage and leads to the Secession under Friedrichstrasse ; further short passages lead to exits. To the east of the complex is the Karlsplatz Passage ( Karlsplatzpassage ), which is below the two Wagner pavilions. It leads from Resselpark in the south, over the tunnels of the U2, U4 and the Wien River in the north to the beginning of Akademiestraße at the Künstlerhaus , where there is a small arena . The passage is only indirectly connected to the Kärntnertorpassage - through the platforms of the U2 and U4.

The Opernpassage subway junction is frequented by around 200,000 to 300,000 passers-by every day.

The police inspection in the passage was last enlarged in 2006, around 36 police officers are on duty here.

In several of the passages as well as on the subway's distribution floor there are a total of four works of subway art that were installed from 2003 to 2013.

From June 7, 2010, the entire Opernpassage complex was rebuilt. The listed Opernpassage - the oldest part below the Opernringkreuzung - was completely renovated and set back in the style of the 1950s. The pillars were originally covered with linoleum ; as this contradicts fire protection today, they were reproduced using glass and photo film. The Kärntnertorpassage was widened from five to eight meters, the existing row of shops was cleared and replaced with an art installation. The subjective feeling of security was increased by a new lighting concept and other structural measures. The Kärntnertorpassage was closed from March to August 2012; all work was completed in 2013; the cost was around 21 million euros.

From the year 2000, an exit was only labeled as an opera passage without the last e . According to MA 28, this is a deliberate misspelling that was justified with artistic freedom. Since there were constant complaints or at least inquiries, the lettering was brought back into a correct form in 2013.

Toilet

The public toilets built by the City of Vienna are looked after by MA 48 - Vehicle Fleet and City Cleaning. One such facility - the one in the Opernpassage at the entrance to the State Opera - was sold to a private operator who redesigned it and opened it in 2000. It was operated as an “Opera Toilet” and played with the Danube Waltz .

The four pissoire in this “Opera Toilet” caused a stir in the media in October 2006. There were urinals designed like women's mouths that were ultimately dismantled, replaced and auctioned off.

In 2018, the City of Vienna terminated the lease agreement with the operator. The waltz toilet was dismantled on January 1, 2019 and the premises were handed over to the City of Vienna on January 3, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Opernpassage  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pröll: Car-free Vienna Ringstrasse is a strong signal for climate protection. (No longer available online.) Lebensministerium.at, formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 12, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / presse.lebensministerium.at
  2. ↑ 40 years of Opernpassage. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e City Hall correspondence - historical review - November 1955. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  4. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - December 1957. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  5. ^ Die Presse, April 30, 1955
  6. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - August 1955. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  7. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - January 1956. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  8. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - July 1957. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  9. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - June 1959. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  10. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - September 1964. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ City Hall correspondence - historical review - July 1965. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Bridge Information Vienna. City of Vienna, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ New police station opened. ORF Vienna, April 24, 2006, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  14. ^ Vienna: 21 million euros for the renovation of the Karlsplatzpassage. Die Presse, October 31, 2008, accessed June 7, 2010 .
  15. ↑ Renovation of Karlsplatz: The next project phase starts in January. (No longer available online.) Wiener Linien, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 20, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wienerlinien.at
  16. ↑ “Opernpassag” gets an “e”. ORF Vienna, March 13, 2013, accessed on March 13, 2013 .
  17. ^ Peter Payer (editor): Clean Vienna - City cleaning and waste disposal since 1945. Vienna, 2006, Holzhausen Verlag GmbH, ISBN 978-385493-131-7
  18. ↑ Controversial urinals are being dismantled. ORF Vienna, October 19, 2006, accessed on November 23, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Cult toilet at the opera before the end. ORF Vienna, May 8, 2018, accessed on May 8, 2018 .
  20. ↑ The opera toilet closes on January 1st. ORF Vienna, December 28, 2018, accessed on December 28, 2018 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 5.7 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 9.5 ″  E