Esperanto Park and Girardi Park

Esperantopark and Girardipark are two green parks in Vienna’s 1st district, Inner City, divided only by a walkway.

The two interconnecting green spaces are located on a big traffic island on Friedrichstraße, next to Resselpark and Rosa-Mayreder-Park in Wieden’s 4th district.This entire continuous region around Karlsplatz was part of the glacis enclosing Vienna’s city wall from the 16th century, and the Wien River flowed through it.The river, which was bridged by the Kärntnertorbrücke as an extension of the Kärntner Straße, which was crossed by the Elisabethbrücke in 1854, was controlled in 1817.The river Wien was ultimately arched between 1895 and 1902, when the Elisabeth Bridge was dismantled and the Stadtbahn’s subterranean line was created beside the river.Because of the 1969 subway construction, the entire neighborhood was renovated by Swedish architect Sven-Ingvar Andersson, and the street arrangement of Friedrichstrasse was revised, resulting in the current position.The Esperanto and Girardi Parks were built as part of Jakob Fina’s 2006 makeover of Karlsplatz’s green areas.

The two parks are located in the center of busy roadways and are thus not appropriate for loitering.As a result, instead of the traditional park seats, an eye-catcher with attractive elevated flower beds was erected in the Esperanto Park.

There is a monument at the “Esperantopark” honouring the author of the intended language Esperanto, Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof.Josef Müller-Weidler made it in 1958 and presented it to the Esperanto Museum.Zamenhof’s bronze bust is on a high pedestal.The monument used to be located on Börseplatz.The installation of the monument and name of the park paid tribute to the Esperantist movement in Vienna, which had a convention here in 1910 and international congresses in 1970 and 1992.

There is also a fall into the Vienna sewage system in the Esperantopark, which may be viewed as part of so-called 3rd man excursions.The film The Third Man, starring Orson Welles, is mentioned, and the scenes in the Vienna sewers are particularly memorable.

The adjacent “Girardipark” is dominated by Otto Hofner’s 1929 monument honoring the actor Alexander Girardi.Girardi is shown in full person on a very low foundation in this stone memorial.Valentin from Ferdinand Raimund’s drama “The Waster” (with the aircraft under his arm).