Vienna: A Wanderer’s Bits

I wander when I travel; my preference is walking through cities, with buses or trams as second choice. Rambler, flâneur, Spaziergänger—fit the name to the city. And, when I’m home, and written about some of the places and events I’ve been, there’s always more ‘bits’ left over, things I saw and wondered about, or want to remember.

On my most recent visit to Vienna, I was concentrating on Art Nouveau architecture—and, alright, I admit it, sausages—so it’s probably not surprising that this time there’s a lot of architectural detail of all sorts in my grab bag, offered here.

We can start with the lush glass canopy of the Lusser Gallery at the top, and continue with the lavishly decorated building with Art Nouveau windows and ironwork—and a McDonald’s at the bottom. Living buildings, not museums, and the mix is eclectic, not wholly focused on one style in any particular neighborhood.

In fact, that’s some of the charm in Vienna: the frank mixing of classical with Art Nouveau. Here’s a statue in antique style set on a facade with a mix of classical symmetry and Art Nouveau ‘nature’ carving.

Some of the flamboyant facades of the late days of the Empire have found tenants representing new sorts of empires, in this case the super-luxury goods empire of LVMH and its Louis Vuitton brand, Rolex in the Raiffeisenbank building and Massimo Dutti in a classic on Kohlmarkt. Personally, I have a strong dislike of the bank building designed by Adolf Loos, a dislike I apparently share with the Emperor Franz Joseph, whose palace faces it across the square. He ordered the curtains permanently closed on the windows facing it.

More style mixes, including one with extra stories, including towers, added sometime after construction.

And a pure and functional classic: the Stadtpark subway station, one of many designed by Otto Wagner. It’s both more restrained, less-known and more functional than his famous Karlsplatz station, which is, in a way, more monument than utility.

It’s a fashion outlet now, but fortunately there’s been no tampering with this extraordinary facade. The building dates to 1892, but the storefront and interior were done by Adolf Loos in 1912. For this, I’m prepared to forgive him for the bank building.

The Vienna Concert House, home to the Vienna Philharmonic and other orchestras, is a two-faced proposition with multiple auditoriums. Opened in 1913, it was originally to be the center of a number of cultural and sports venues, including a skating rink and outdoor amphitheater, but those were lost to hotel construction in 1960.

If you didn’t know, would you really suspect this is the same building?

And, now we have a building with a very unusual history: Palais Hoyos. It’s one of three buildings designed by Otto Wagner in the 1890s, with ‘historicist’ proportions and facades that combine Rococo and Art Nouveau. They were intended to house wealthy families as well as some rental apartments on upper floors.

Rennweg 3, in the middle, was kept by Wagner himself, and number 5 was occupied from 1898 to 1909 by Gustav Mahler. In 1903, Wagner sold his building to the Hoyos family, who were downsizing from their other palace, now the Hotel Bristol. In 1957, they sold it to Yugoslavia for use as an embassy. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia claimed it as its embassy, but a treaty among the states of the former country assigned it to Croatia, whose embassy is there now.

Is there more? Of course there is. And, do I hear a waltz? Smell a sausage? Is Vienna calling me back? I think so…