Page 110 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Austria

108  Vienna area b y area

end of Prater became a massive
funfair with booths, sideshows,
shooting galleries, merry-go-
rounds and beer gardens. Today,
the Wurstelprater, as the funfair
is called, is one of Europe’s best-
equipped amusement parks.
Its most famous attraction is the
giant Riesenrad (ferris wheel) built
in 1896 by the English engineer
The vast, modern complex of UNO-City on the Danube Walter Basset. The setting for the
tense final scene in Carol Reed’s
7 UNO-City with excellent recreational film The Third Man (1949), it is
facilities. One of the main attrac- now one of the city’s symbols.
Wagramerstrasse 5. Tel 26060-5596.
% Kaisermühlen, Vienna Interna tional tions is the Donauturm, a TV The Prater is also a vast sports
Center. @ 20A, 92A, 92B. 8 11am, tower rising to 252 m (827 ft), park, home to a soccer and a
2pm, 3:30pm Mon–Fri (plus 12:30pm with two revolving restaurants trotting stadium, the Freudenau
Jul & Aug); ID required. Donauturm: and an observation platform. Racetrack, swimming pools,
Tel 263 35 72. ∑ unvienna.org tennis courts, a golf course
and cycling trails, as well as
On the left bank of the Danube 8 Prater a planetarium and open-air
is UNO-City, one of only three Tel Praterverband 728 05 16. Ferris restaurants and bars.
United Nations headquarters. Wheel 72 95 430. % Praterstern. @ Nearby are the pavilions
The complex stands on inter- 5B, 80A. v 5, O. < Wien Nord. Open and vast grounds of the annual
national, non-Austrian territory; Funfair mid-Mar–Oct: 10am–midnight Vienna Fair for numerous
its post office uses its own special daily. ∑ praterwien.com temporary exhibitions.
postage stamps and UN post-
marks. UNO-City consists of four Originally an imperial
vast semicircular buildings and hunting ground, the
a large congress hall, one of the woods and meadows
most strikingly modern pieces of between the Danube and
architecture in Europe, designed its canal were opened
by the architect Johann Staber to the public by Joseph II
and opened in 1979. Today, in 1766. The Hauptallee
visitors can join one of the regular (central avenue) was for
guided tours of the complex. a long time the preserve
UNO-City is surrounded by a of the nobility and their
green park, covering an area of footmen. During the 19th
over 600,000 sq m (700,000 sq yds), century, the northwestern The Wurstelprater funfair at night

9 Hundertwasser-
Haus Apartments Typically irregular
Löwengasse/Kegelgasse. delineated by window
% Landstrasse. v 1. colour
Closed no admission to the public.
Kunsthaus Wien: Tel 712 0491. Main entrance
Open 10am–7pm daily. ∑ das- on Löwengasse
hundertwasser-haus.at
Hundertwasser-Haus is a
municipal apartment block
created in 1985 by the artist
Friedensreich Hundertwasser. An
eclectic-style building, combining
the elements of a Moorish
mosque with features of Spanish
villages and Venetian palaces, it
has become one of Vienna’s main
attractions. The shopping centre
opposite was designed by the
artist, whose work is on show at
the Kunsthaus Wien, Untere
Weissgerberstrasse 13.
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p294 and pp314–16

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