Burggarten

The Burggarten is a public park located on Vienna’s Ringstrasse.

The location was once a suburb in front of the Widmertor, but it has been part of the glacis in front of Vienna’s city wall since the 16th century.The Augustinerschanze was located there beginning in 1637.Only the bastion was reconstructed after the French blew up the Augustinerschanze and Augustinerbastei in 1809.The Hornwerkskurtine was relocated to the outdoors between 1817 and 1821.The Imperial Garden, formerly known as the Court Garden, was built on a freshly formed land behind the Augustinian Bastion.It was the private garden of the Emperor.A wall and an access ramp separated the area from Heroes’ Square.The complex, like the Volksgarten, was developed by Ludwig Gabriel von Remy and court gardener Franz Antoine the Elder, but with personal input from Emperor Franz, who was a professional gardener himself.Because of the emphasis on unique plants, both local and international gardeners were consulted.There was also a subsequent remodel, this time in the shape of an English landscape garden, by Franz Antoine the Younger.The Hornwerk curtain wall was destroyed in 1863, and the park was extended towards the ring road, including today’s pond.Moritz Löhr built the barrier between 1863 and 1865.From 1881, the garden on the north side was diminished due to the construction of the New Hofburg.During the operation, the wall was dismantled.

The park was opened to the public in 1919 and was temporarily known as the Garden of the Republic before being renamed the Burggarten.Between 1988 and 1992, subterranean storage for the Austrian National Library was built beneath the terrace in front of the New Castle.

It is now managed by the Federal Gardens, a Ministry of Life agency.