Augarten

The Augarten is a 52.2-hectare (129-acre) public park in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt, the city’s second district. It is home to the city’s oldest Baroque park.

It borders (since 1900) the 20th district, Brigittenau, and the former Nordwestbahnhof, from which the North Western Railway made its way to Bohemia, while to the south it faces the Karmeliterviertel (“Carmelite quarter”), the historical Jewish quarter, followed by the Leopoldstadt. The territories north and east of the Augarten were primarily uninhabited floodlands until 1870 (Vienna Danube regulation).

The park is created in the French Baroque style, with exquisite flower gardens and shaded pathways of chestnut, lime, ash, and maple trees. Like other enclosed public parks and gardens in Vienna, it is only available during the day and closes at sundown (as indicated by a siren).

The Wiener Sängerknaben (the Vienna Boys’ Choir) in the Palais Augarten, the Augarten Porzellanmanufaktur (Augarten porcelain factory), the Augarten Contemporary (part of the sterreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Austrian Gallery housed in the Belvedere), the Filmarchiv Austria, a retirement home, a Jewish academic campus (called Lauder Chabad Campus), a paddling pool for children, and sports fields are all located in the Augarten. Two towering anti-aircraft bunkers (flak towers) are significant reminders of the Third Reich.

There are two places in the park where you can get food or snacks: the Bunkerei (partially situated in a former bunker) and the Filmarchiv, as well as two catering enterprises, one of which is located in the Atelier Augarten.

Since 2000, the Baroque park, palace, and the surviving portion of the old park wall, all dating from the early 18th century, have been designated as historic monuments.

The Augarten is bounded to the north-east by the former Nordwestbahnhof, to the south-east by the district around Volkertmarkt, which borders the Nordbahnviertel, to the south-west by the Karmeliterviertel, and to the north-west by the Brigittenau, which was separated from the 2nd district in 1900.The park wall marks the 2/20 district border to the north-west and north-east. The Augarten and its environs comprise the Augarten district, a ten-counting district in Leopoldstadt.

Untere Augartenstrasse is the route that connects the Augarten Bridge across the Danube Canal to the Augarten’s main gate.Obere Augartenstrasse is the street that runs the length of the park on its south-west side.The Wiener Linien tram line 31 ( Schottenring – Stammersdorf ) runs along the Lower Augartenstrasse and a portion of the Upper Augartenstrasse to the north-west.Since 2008, the Taborstrasse underground station has been positioned near the southern extremity of the Augarten on the U2 underground line.Tram line 5, which was Vienna’s first electrified tram line in 1897, travels along Rabbi-Schneerson-Platz and the neighboring Rauscherstraße along the park wall in the north-east.