Auer-Welsbach Park

The Auer-Welsbach-Park is a park in Vienna’s Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus neighborhood that is bounded by Linker Wienzeile, Schönbrunner Schlossallee, Mariahilfer Strasse, and Winckelmannstrasse.It is the largest park in the 15th district, with around 110,000 m2.It takes its name from the Austrian scientist Carl Auer von Welsbach.

Originally, in the area of today’s Auer-Welsbach-Park, there was a “kitchen garden” where fruit and vegetables were produced.At this location, a park known as Schönbrunner Vorpark was established around 1890.As a contrast to the baroque aspect of the Schönbrunn Palace Park on the other side of the Wien River, the park was constructed with a tiny pond in the form of an English landscape garden.In 1919, a children’s outdoor pool was erected on the location of the pond, but it was closed and destroyed in 1990.An “urban wilderness” formed on this section of the park, which afterwards remained fallow, and in 2003 the flame women-Sculptures Sarah and Johanna (see list of works of art in public space in Vienna ) by the artist Charlotte Seidl were held here.

The park was part of Penzing’s 14th district until 1992, when it was shifted to the 15th district as part of a border adjustment.

The Schweizerspende special kindergarten, located in the park’s northwest corner, was erected in 1948/49 according to plans by architect Franz Schuster, and was subsequently enlarged by Dimitris Manikas. It is currently a listed structure.Susann Schmid-Giovannini established the first hearing-impaired special kindergarten in the German-speaking world here in 1949.

A gray poplar (Populus canescens) is designated as a Vienna natural monument with the number 444 in the park’s south-eastern region. The gray poplar dates from before the park was founded and is most likely the only surviving tree along the Wien River’s banks in this location.The Auer-Welsbach-Park youth sports complex in the park is around 25,400 m2 in size and provides handball, fistball, and athletics.In the park’s south-western corner, there is an unfenced 10,060 m2 dog zone.

The sculpture “Virgen del Tesoro” by Austrian artist Johanna Honisch was on display in the park’s northern section until the summer of 2021.Small copper plates were hammered into a four-meter-high black pine tree trunk, based on a portrayal of the same-named Madonna in a Toledo church.