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The Hauptallee (main avenue) of the Wiener Prater
The Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district (Leopoldstadt). The Wurstelprater amusement park, often simply called "Prater", stands in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the Wiener Riesenrad.
History
The area that makes up the modern Prater was first mentioned in 1162, when Emperor Friedrich I gave the land to a noble family called de Prato. The word "Prater" was first used in 1403, originally referring to a small island in the Danube north of Freudenau, but was gradually extended to mean the neighbouring areas as well. The land changed hands frequently until it was bought by Emperor Maximilian II in 1560 to be a hunting ground. To deal with the problem of poachers, Emperor Rudolf II forbade entry to the Prater. On April 7 1766, Emperor Joseph II declared the Prater to be free for public enjoyment, and allowed the establishment of coffee-houses and cafés, which led to the beginnings of the Wurstelprater. Throughout this time, hunting continued to take place in the Prater, ending only in 1920.
In 1873, a World Exhibition was held in the Prater, for which a large area of land was set aside, centered on the Rotunda, which burnt down in 1937. This land now houses the Messegelände (exhibition centre).
In 2004, major renovations to the Wurstelprater began, and a new underground railway line was finished and brought into service on May 11, 2008, which includes three stops along the Prater (see Vienna U-Bahn). The railway station Praterstern has been in operation for a long time and is only a few dozen metres away from an entrance to the park.
The overall area of the park has also been reduced by the building of the Ernst-Happel-Stadion (Austria's national stadium), the Südosttangente (Austria's busiest piece of motorway) and racecourse.
Other attractions in the Wiener
PraterThe Hauptallee (main avenue) is the main artery, lined with horse chestnut trees, closed to motorists and known to sports enthusiasts from the annual Vienna Marathon. The Wiener Prater is home to the Liliputbahn, a narrow gauge railway. Another unusual object to be found in the Wiener Prater is the Republik Kugelmugel (Republic of Kugelmugel), a spherical micronation. The Wiener Prater also houses a planetarium and the Prater Museum.
The Riesenrad, seen from the outside of the PraterWiener Riesenrad
The Wiener Riesenrad (German for "Viennese giant wheel"), or Riesenrad is a Ferris wheel at the entrance of the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Austria's capital Vienna. It is now one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions, and symbolises the district as well as the city for many people.
The Riesenrad was one of the earliest Ferris wheels, erected in 1897 to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's golden Jubilee. At this time it was the largest in the world with an overall height of 64.75 meters(212.4 ft).
The wheel originally had 30 gondolas, but was severely damaged in World War II. When it was rebuilt, only 15 gondolas were replaced. The spokes are steel cables, in tension, and the wheel is driven by a circumferential cable which leaves the wheel and passes through the drive mechanism under the base.
A demolition permit for the Riesenrad was issued in 1916, but due a lack to funds with which to carry out the destruction, it survived.
The Riesenrad is not the only Ferris wheel in Vienna, but it is the largest. Since 1993, there is a second permanent Ferris wheel in the Prater with a diameter of 35 metres, called the Blumenrad. A further permanent Ferris wheel can be found at Bohemian Prater.
In popular culture
The Riesenrad famously appeared in the 1949 post-war film noir The Third Man, and also featured in the 1973 spy thriller Scorpio, and the 1987 James Bond film, The Living Daylights. It also appears in The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson, Max Ophuls' Letter from an Unknown Woman and its Generation X counterpart, Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, and The Glass Room by Simon Mawer.
Posted in: Austria
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