Powder Tower (Vienna)

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The former Vienna Powder Tower , also known as the powder magazine , was in the open from 1740 to 1779 at what later became Pulverturmgasse 7 and 8 in the Vienna suburb of Thury . The building was filled with 1,256 quintals of gunpowder and lump ammunition such as grenades and cannon balls .

history

In the 15th century there was a powder pound in Vienna , which was located in the area of ​​the Salzgries barracks that were later built there. In 1441 there was also a ducal powder magazine in the so-called Harnischhaus . From 1530 to 1693 the chapel of Saints Philip and Jacob on the Freyung served as the municipal powder store. In 1740 a powder tower was built near the Nussdorf line as an ammunition and powder magazine. It was used in times of war to ensure supplies for the troops. On June 26, 1779, there was a fire in this facility, which led to a serious explosion at around 9 a.m. This caused severe damage by flying ammunition parts in the suburbs of Himmelpfortgrund , Lichtenthal , Rossau and Thury. In addition, 92 were killed (25 constables , 67 civilians in the streets and in the fields) and 97 were seriously injured. Numerous adjoining houses collapsed or were so badly damaged that they were uninhabitable, even the more stable church building in Lichtenthal was in danger of collapsing.

“Around the ninth hour… a terrible bang suddenly made the air and earth shake. The people fell stunned to the ground, and with a thunder-like roar rattled thousands of cannon pellets, blown wall rubble, beams, bricks, even entire roofs and chimneys in all directions; a thick, suffocating sulfur smoke moved the area with gray-yellow fumes ... "

- The Rossau and the fishing village on the upper Werd.

"... who ... blew up in an explosion on June 26, 1779, as if one had fired a thousand cannons at the same time. Here, 25 henchmen and constables were torn apart in such a way that only individual parts of their bodies were found scattered. Many other people on the street, such as in the nearby fields and meadows, were killed or seriously wounded by the countless cannon balls, howitzers and grenades flying around, and many trees in Brigittenau and Augarten were splintered. "

- Barbarusbooks.de

“Once my great-grandfather was sitting in the room with his children. Suddenly there is a terrible bang and it becomes pitch black. He grabs the children and jumps under the door frame. Because the old houses had very thick walls, such a door frame was a few feet wide, and it was known from the Turkish era that some of them were protected in the depths of the door frame when the house collapsed. When the darkness passed, it was seen that all the windows had been smashed and the roofs of the houses had shifted. The powder tower on the Nussdorfer Line had blown up. It had torn off countless people's limbs, even their heads, and wounded many. Only a little boy who was grazing a goat very close to the powder tower remained undamaged with it. "

- Memories of an old woman from Vienna

Ambros Lorenz (1721–1781), provost of the Klosterneuburg monastery, narrowly escaped the impact of a cannonball that was thrown out and hit and killed his carriage horse. On this occasion he had a votive column built, dedicated to Saint Leopold .

This event is also described in a hiking guide from the Biedermeier period , the work “ Vienna's Environs for Twenty Hours Around ” by Adolf Schmidl (1835):

“In 1779 an ammunition magazine that was still inside the lines blew up. The blame was put partly on the smoking of tobacco, partly on the nails in the shoes of an artilleryman, which are said to have started fire. 25 henchmen and constables were so torn that their bodies were no longer found, or only found in pieces; many people nearby were killed or wounded by the bullet rain, trees in Brigittenau and Augarten were smashed, houses nearby were destroyed, the whole city shaken as if by an earthquake. Only the guard standing close to the tower remained unharmed, except that she was thrown to the ground and remained deaf for life. Even the houses in the Schottenviertel were damaged by the terrible tremors. A bullet killed one of the horses of the prelate Ambros Lorenz von Klosterneuburg, which had just passed and remained undamaged, although he later died of the aftermath of the horror. […] In the wall [of the parish church in Währingen ] one notices two bullets walled in, which, however, do not remind of an enemy, but of the explosion of the ammunition magazine on the Nussdorf line ... "

- Vienna's surroundings for twenty hours around

After this disaster, the ten outer towers of the surrounding wall of the garden of the Neugebauten Castle were converted into powder magazines and the buildings were left to the military to set up an artillery test station.

literature

  • Alfred Wolf: Alsergrund Chronicle. From Roman times to the end of the monarchy. Self-published, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-900447-00-4 , p. 90 ff.
  • Alfred Wolf: Monuments and ornamental fountains in Vienna-Alsergrund. Sutton, Erfurt 2005, ISBN 3-89702-873-5 .
  • Helga Maria Wolf: The unbelievable incident of the powder magatzins bursting. (Pp. 1–2) and description of the powder magazine that was blown up on June 26th, 1779 ... in Vienna by the Nussdorfer line, along with the accidents that occurred. (Pp. 3–6) In: The Alsergrund Local History Museum. Issue 80 (September), Schulz, Vienna 1779, ISSN  0017-9809 ( bezirksmuseum.at PDF; 2.49 MB).
  • Anna Hartmann (Ed. Erika Flemmich): Memories of an old Viennese woman . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-205-98848-5 ( books.google.at ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Robert Walter of Coeckelberghe-Dützele (Realis): powder tower explosion . In: Anton Köhler (Ed.): Curiosities and Memorabilia Lexicon of Vienna . tape 2 . Printed by A. Pichler's Witwe, Vienna 1846, p. 261–262 ( reader.digitale-sammlungen.de ).
  2. ↑ Carl Hofbauer: The Rossau and the fishing village on the upper Werd. Historical-topographical sketches to describe the old suburbs of Vienna. 2., verb. Edition. Dirnböck, Vienna 1866, p. 55-56 ( books.google.de ).
  3. ↑ The Vienna powder tower explosion of 1779 December 14, 2017.
  4. ↑ Anna Hartmann: Memories of an old Viennese woman. P. 34.
  5. ↑ Prelate's Cross - Votive column in memory of the powder tower explosion on austria-forum.org.
  6. ^ Adolf Schmidl: Vienna's surroundings for twenty hours in a circle. Described by Adolf Schmidl after his own hikes. Printed and published by Carl Gerold, Vienna 1835, pp. 16, 73–74.
  7. ↑ Vienna - Neugebäude burgen-austria.com.

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 '44.4 "  N , 16 ° 21' 10.8"  E