Page 67 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Austria

INNER CIT Y  65

but during the Middle Ages, high Gothic steeple dominating
Judenplatz was the site of the the city. The stone helmet atop
Jewish ghetto, with a syna- the steeple is a master piece of
gogue, the remains of which Viennese Gothic art.
can be seen under the square. First mentioned in the 12th
There was also a Jewish century, the present building
hospital, rabbi’s house, dates from the late 1300s, and is
bathhouse and school. one of Vienna’s oldest churches.
In 2000, the Museum It was used as an arsenal during
Judenplatz, devoted to medieval Napoleon’s occupation of the
Jewish life, opened in Misrachi city in 1809, but later restored.
House. A modern monu ment by Inside, the stained-glass
Rachel Whiteread at the centre panes behind the main altar are
of the square comme morates mostly original medieval features.
the victims of the Holocaust. The pillars are adorned with six
Stadttempel, Vienna’s only Gothic statues, plus some from
synagogue to have survived the 17th and 19th centu ries. Ironwork at the entrance to the Altes
World War II, is hidden behind a To the left of the main altar is a Rathaus, Wipplingerstrasse
façade on Seitenstetten gasse. It is chapel with a Renaissance stone
now guarded by armed police, a altar, with colourful painted gave it to Vienna. It served as
precaution taken following a carvings. The church also holds the city’s main administrative
terrorist attack in 1983. the tomb of Clemens Maria centre until 1883.
In 1895, the world’s first Hofbauer, the city’s patron saint. The entrance of the Altes
Jewish Museum was founded Rathaus is festooned with lovely
here. It was closed down by the Baroque ironwork. In the court-
Nazis, but a new museum y Altes Rathaus yard stands the Andromeda
opened in 1993 in Palais Eskeles Wipplingerstrasse 8. Map 2 B3. Fountain (1741), the last work of
in Dorotheergasse (see p60). % Schwedenplatz, Stephansplatz. the sculptor Georg Raphael
v 1, 2. @ 1A, 3A. Archives and Donner. A door leads from the
Museum of the Austrian Resistance: courtyard to Salvatorkapelle (St
Tel 228 9469 319. Open 9am–5pm Saviour’s chapel), the former
Mon–Wed, 9am–7pm Thu. Neuhaus family chapel, which
8 by appointment. has a Renaissance portal (1520–
30) facing Salvatorgasse, a rare
Vienna’s Old Town Hall probably example in Vienna of the Italian
first stood at neighbouring Renaissance style.
Tuchlaubenstrasse. The building Today, the Altes Rathaus
at Wipplingerstrasse was once houses the Archives and
owned by the rich and influential Museum of the Austrian
brothers Otto and Haimo von Resistance, devoted to the
Neuhaus, who headed a burghers’ memory of those who risked
rebellion against the Habsburgs. their lives by opposing National
In 1309, Prince Friedrich the Fair Socialism in Austria, in the
confiscated the building and years 1934–45.
Vienna’s Jews – Past and Present
A Jewish merchant community thrived in Vienna from the 12th century,
The Gothic interior of the church with the original Jewish quarter centred around Judenplatz. During the
Maria am Gestade 1421 persecutions many Jews were murdered, while others were forced
to convert to the Christian faith or to leave the town. The 1781 Edict
t Maria am of Tolerance, issued by Joseph II, lifted legal constraints on Jews, and
Gestade the centre of Jewish life gradually moved to the opposite bank of the
Danube Canal, around
Salvatorgasse 12. Map 2 C3. the Prater. In 1938, some
Tel 533 959 40. % Schwedenplatz, 200,000 Jews lived in
Stephans platz. @ 1A, 3A. Open Vienna, contributing to
7am–6pm daily. ∑ maria-am- its cultural and intellectual
gestade.redemptoristen.at life. After the Nazi
genocide, only 7,000
The church of St Mary’s on the remained. Now Eastern
riverbank was once flooded European immigrants
by the waters of an old Danube are again adding to
canal. Today it rises on a steep their total number. The lavish interior of the Stadttempel
escarpment, its 56-m- (180-ft-)

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