Dehnepark

The Dehnepark is a 50,000-square-meter natural park-like park in Vienna’s 14th district, Penzing.The park is part of the Vienna Woods and is notable for its population of ancient trees and its ecology.It is located in the Rosental on the east slope of the Satzberg, Hütteldorf’s local mountain, and on the opposite side on the slopes of the Steinhofgrund.

The Rosenbach River runs through the valley, and every spring a toad migration occurs.The artificially dammed Dehne pond and the broad meadow below it constitute the core of the Dehnepark, which was extended by the recent arching of the Rosenbach.The pond provides critical habitat for the endangered red-eared slider.The Rosenbach is also very important ecologically, however it is presently partially impeded, resulting in swamp-like environments in certain areas.

The Dehnepark was designed originally as a landscape garden for Princess Maria Antoine Paar (née Liechtenstein).Friedrich Mayern designed it between 1791 and 1804.It was designed in the style of an English landscape garden of the time.Through numerous features such as temples, pavilions, grottos, and buildings, the park was given a Biedermeier, romantic character.With the exception of a neo-Gothic ruined mansion from the late 18th century, these characteristics of garden design vanished in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The park was named after the confectioner August Dehne.In the nineteenth century, he made a lot of money with his pastry shop on Michaelerplatz (later Konditorei Demel am Kohlmarkt), so he put it all into the big, forested property near Hütteldorf.Willi Forst, a Viennese film director, acquired the land and erected a home there decades later.Following WWII, the Vienna Municipality became interested in the progressively overgrown park, purchasing it from Forst in 1969 and opening it to the public in 1973.Since then, the Dehnepark has been administered and cared for by the City of Vienna’s Forestry Office (Municipal Department 49).