Volkstheater underground station

Popular theater
Underground station in Vienna
U3 platforms, glass frieze by Anton Lehmden
Basic data
District :	Inner City , new building (7th district)
Coordinates :	48 ° 12 '18 "  N , 16 ° 21' 29"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '18 "  N , 16 ° 21' 29"  E
Opened:	1980
Tracks (platform):	4 ( side platform , central platform )
Station abbreviation:	VT
use
Subway lines :
Transfer options :	Volkstheater: 49 48A N46 N49 Ring, Volkstheater: D 1 2 46 49 71 48A N25 N38 N46 N60 N66 Bellariastraße: Vienna Airport Lines

The Volkstheater station is a three-story, underground crossing station of the U2 and U3 underground lines in the 1st and 7th districts of Vienna, the inner city and the new building . The station was named after the neighboring Volkstheater . It is connected to the Bellariapassage under the Ringstrasse .

The U3 systems extend under Bellariastraße from Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring or Burgring to Museumstraße or Museumplatz on the so-called two -way line (border between 1st and 7th district ). The platforms of the U2 are located directly under Museum Square or Museumstrasse. The U3, which has a central platform, is located at right angles to the U2 in a spacious , hall-like station with a glass frieze by Anton Lehmden .

The platforms of the U2 are connected to those of the U3 via escalators , fixed stairs and an elevator system. A small commercial passage, the Bellaria passage, passes under the ring. Here you have the option of changing to lines 46, 49 and 48A going out of town, to the ring tram lines D, 1, 2 and 71 as well as to the inner-city bus line 3A.

history

After the Opernpassage , which opened in 1955, the city administration built more pedestrian underpasses in the 1960s, in line with the traffic policy of the time. The Bellariapassage was opened on July 14, 1961.

In the 1960s, the so-called two-way lines , the tram lines with the index number 2, which ran on the freight road , were also relocated under the road surface. A station of the "Ustraba" called Unterpflaster tram was opened on October 8, 1966 at the Volkstheater under the name Burggasse . At the time, the station was viewed as an advance service for a future underground railway, but it was built for the smaller profile of the tram vehicles. It was spatially separated from the Bellaria Passage by two blocks.

In the 1970s, the conversion for the subway took place. At the end of June 1980, tram traffic in the tunnel was terminated; On August 30, 1980, the underground line U2 was opened with the station now known as the Volkstheater . This continued the concept of unique station names, because the Burggasse-Stadthalle station, which at that time still belonged to the Stadtbahn , was located on the Gürtel .

Between the Bellariapassage and the Volkstheater U2 station, the U3 station was built one level lower, the central platform of which connects the two older buildings. On April 6, 1991, the first section of the U3, Erdberg – Volkstheater, opened.

In 2001 the MuseumsQuartier adjacent to the Volkstheater station was opened. Since then, the station has been the most important “feeder” to the MQ in the public transport network. One of its outputs is located directly in the MQ.

The U2 platforms were only designed for short trains due to the short distance between the U2 stations. In connection with the planned extension of the U2, the platforms were extended at the beginning of the 2000s; The Lerchenfelder Strasse underground station, which is closely located to the north , was closed on September 27, 2003 in this context .

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  The station's reception building

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  Platform area of ​​the U2

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  Ustrab station "Burggasse" during the conversion to the U2 station "Volkstheater"

Expansion project "Line cross U2 / U5"

As part of the expansion project for the U2 / U5 line intersection, the U2 is to have a new south branch from 2027 and no longer use this station. Instead, the Volkstheater station will be served by the new U5 . Since this underground line will run fully automatically, platform screen doors will be retrofitted as part of a two-year closure on the Schottentor - Karlsplatz route . After the closure has expired, only the U2 will initially serve the station, after its opening also the U5 and after the opening of the new south branch of the U2 only the U5.

In the Volkstheater was founded by the Wiener Linien an information center for the expansion project lined cross U2xU5 built.

Design

In the upper part of the U3 platform there is a mural “The Becoming of Nature” by Anton Lehmden on three sides . Lehmden was commissioned by Wiener Linien in 1987 to design this station artistically, and the work was completed in 1991 as the first underground work of art in Vienna. The central picture on the front wall shows the Big Bang and the creation of the universe , whereby this picture is deliberately brighter than the others. The history of the development of nature is shown in five panels on each side wall. The left side is dominated by horizontal geological layers and the separation of earth and water, the right side shows evolution and is deliberately kept more dynamic.

Lehmden's eleven original images were first reproduced and enlarged photographically, and the image was made as a mosaic based on this template . Graduates from a mosaic school in Spilimbergo near Udine came to Vienna and carried out the work over two and a half years. A total of four million fingernail-sized mosaic stones were laid, the total area of ​​the mural is 360 m².

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  Mural The Becoming of Nature

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  Left side

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  Front side, big bang

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  right side

Individual evidence

1. ^ Opening of the USTRABA station in Burggasse
2. ↑ Upflastraba, subway and utopia
3. ^ Station Volkstheater. In: U2xU5. City of Vienna, accessed on August 2, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Wieland Schmied in Johann Hödl (ed.): Viennese U-Bahn-Kunst . Wiener Linien, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-200-02173-0 , pp. 117ff.

Web links

Commons : Volkstheater U-Bahn Station  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

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