Page 67 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Austria

INNER C I ty  65

restaurants, but during the dominating the town. The
Middle Ages, Judenplatz was stone helmet at the top of
the site of the Jewish ghetto, the steeple is a masterpiece
with a syna gogue, the remains of Viennese Gothic art.
of which can be seen under the First mentioned in the 12th
square. 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.
Stadttempel, Vienna’s only It was used as an arsenal during
synagogue to have survived Napoleon’s occupation of the
World War II, is hidden behind a city in 1809, but later restored.
façade on Seitenstetten gasse. It is Inside, the stained-glass
now guarded by armed police, a panes behind the main altar are
precaution taken following a mostly original medieval features.
terrorist attack in 1983. The pillars are adorned with six
In 1895, the world’s first Gothic statues, plus some from
Jewish Museum was founded the 17th and 19th centu ries. Ironwork at the entrance to Altes
here. It was closed down by the To the left of the main altar is a Rathaus, Wipplingerstrasse
Nazis, but a new museum chapel with a Renaissance stone
opened in 1993 in Palais Eskeles altar, adorned with colourful gave it to the town. It served as
in Dorotheergasse (see p60). painted carvings. The church also the town’s main administrative
In 2000, the Museum holds the tomb of Clemens Maria centre until 1883.
Judenplatz, devoted to medieval Hofbauer, the city’s patron saint. The entrance of Altes Rathaus
Jewish life, opened in Misrachi is festooned with beautiful
House. A modern monu ment by Baroque ironwork. In the court-
Rachel Whiteread at the centre y Altes Rathaus yard stands the Andromeda
of the square comme morates Wipplingerstrasse 8. Map 2 B3. Fountain (1741), the last work
the victims of the Holocaust. % Schwedenplatz, Stephansplatz. of 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
Tel 228 9469 319. Open 9am–5pm (St 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 oldest town hall probably example in Vienna of the Italian
first stood at neighbouring Renaissance style.
Tuchlaubenstrasse. The building Today, the Old Town Hall
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 95 94. % Schwedenplatz, 200,000 Jews lived in
Stephansplatz. @ 1A, 3A. Vienna, contributing to
Open 7am–6pm daily. its cultural and intellectual
life. After the Nazi
The church of St Mary’s on the genocide, only 7,000
Riverbank was once flooded remained. Now Eastern
by the waters of an old Danube European immigrants
canal, but today it rises on a are again adding to
steep escarpment, its lofty, 56-m their total number. The lavish interior of Stadttempel
(180-ft) high Gothic steeple

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