Linienwall

Linienwall, Vienna

The Linienwall was an outer line of fortifications for the city of Vienna, Austria, which lay between the city's suburbs and outlaying villages.

Building of the Linienwall

The construction of the Linienwall was begun by order of Emperor Leopold I in 1704 to protect against attacks by the Turks and the Kuruc (a group of anti-Habsburg rebels). It was part of a defensive line that followed the Austro-Hungarian border as delineated by the Danube, March, and Leitha rivers as well as by Lake Neusiedl.

All of the residents of Vienna and its suburbs between the age of 18 and 60 years old were required to work (or provide a replacement worker) on the fortifications, which consisted of a zigzagging palisade-reinforced earth wall, four meters tall by four meters wide and a three meter deep ditch. Construction was completed in only four months. In 1738 the earthworks were reinforced with a layer of bricks.

The fortifications encircled the suburbs from the Danube Canal at Sankt Marx (today Vienna’s 3rd District) to Lichtental (part of the 9th District), a distance of 13.5 km. It thus separated physically the Vorstädte or suburbs (today’s 3rd through 9th districts, incorporated into Vienna in 1850) from theVororte or outlaying places (today’s 10th through 19th districts, incorporated 1892). The most important arterial roads entered the city via drawbridges and gates; each of these locations additionally included a custom house.

On June 11th, 1704 the Linienwall helped a group of 2600 Viennese residents along with 150 students repel an attack by the Kuruc.

The outline of the Linienwall on a historic map from 1790, part of the first comprehensive survey of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy

Linienwall Chapels

Between 1740 and 1760 a chapel dedicated to John of Nepomuk was built at each of the 18 city gates. These chapels were intended to provide a place for all travelers to and from the city to pray or hear mass at the city limit. The only remaining chapel still in its original position is the Hundsturmer Kapelle in the Margareten district. There is also an original chapel dedicated to Johannes Nepomuk am Tabor at the border between the 2nd and 20th districts, but it has been moved a few meters from its original position.

One of the chapels was removed during the construction of Otto Wagner's Vienna Metropolitan Railway in 1898. A replacement chapel was built at this time which now stands near the Vienna Volksoper between the viaduct for the railway (now part of the Vienna u-bahn) and the Vienna ring road or ‘’Gürtel’’.

The Linienwall as Duty Control Limit

A foreign army never seriously tested the military utility of the Linienwall, but it did discourage raids by the aforementioned Kuruc. It did, however, help to protect the revolting citizens of Vienna during the Revolutions of 1848 from imperial forces.

From 1829 on, the walls (specifically the gates leading into the city) primarily served as a location to charge a duty on items entering the city, therefore representing a fiscal and legal as well as physical limit to the city. The suburbs inside of the walls were thus taxed at a higher rate than those outside the walls even before their formal incorporation into the city in 1850. One consequence of this was the establishment of a great number of restaurants and hotels in the ‘’Neulerchenfeld’’ (now part of the 16th District) right outside of the wall (dubbed the “Holy Roman Empire’s biggest pub”) who took advantage of the lower taxes to sell food and drinks at a significantly cheaper rate.

Razing of the Linienwall

By the mid-19th century, long after the Linienwall had become militarily obsolete, Vienna was growing at a rapid rate. As railroad and road construction kept pace with this growth, eventually the space dedicated to the fortification was replaced with transportation facilities. For example, in 1846 the terminus for the South Railway and East Railway was built right outside the Belvedere Gate at Südbahnhof (South Station). In 1858 another station, Wien Westbahnhof was built outside of Mariahilfer Gate. From 1862 to 1873, the first part of the ring roads (the Gürtel mentioned above) was built directly outside of the walls.

In 1874 the unincorporated parts of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th districts that lay outside of the wall were incorporated as a new 10th district, Favoriten. On the 18th of December, 1890 the decision was made to incorporate the remaining outlaying suburbs effective January 1st, 1892. This decision rendered the fortifications as a duty control limit obsolete. The remainders of the Linienwall were removed in March of 1894, leaving behind a very wide belt around the city. Starting in 1895 this area was filled with a second ring road as well as the viaduct for the Vienna Metropolitan Railway, which is how the area remains today.

Existing Relics

Besides the ‘’Hundsturmer’’ Chapel, there remain only a few relics of the Linienwall which can be viewed in the following locations:

• In the 3rd district along the tracks for the Vienna S-Bahn between Rennweg and Südbahnhof stations.
• In the area of a former cow market in the Sankt Marx area of the 3rd District.
• In the yard of Weyringergasse 13 in the 4th District.

Literature

• Ingrid Mader, Der Wiener Linienwall aus historischer, topographischer und archäologischer Sicht, in: Fundort Wien 14, 2011 (2011) 144-163.
• Ingrid Mader, Ingeborg Gaisbauer, Werner Chmelar: Der Wiener Linienwall. Vom Schutzbau zur Steuergrenze. Wien Archäologisch 9. Stadtarchäologie Wien, Wien 2012, ISBN 978-3-85161-064-2

Weblinks

• Wiener Zeitung – Der Vorläufer des Gürtels (Version aus dem Internet Archive, da Original nicht mehr verfügbar)
• Bezirksmuseum Wieden – Der Linienwall auf der Wieden
• Verlauf des Linienwalls um Wien, um 1850