Karmelitermarkt

The Karmelitermarkt has been in operation since 1891 and is located in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt area. The Karmeliterviertel is bounded by Leopoldsgasse, Haidgasse, Krummbaumgasse, and “Im Werd”. The Karmelitermarkt, with eighty market booths, is one of Vienna’s oldest remaining markets.

After Emperor Leopold I drove Jews out in 1670, a strategy was devised to attract strangers. For more than a year, the region that is now Leopoldstadt remained unoccupied. After a while, the magistrate approached the emperor for a solution. Following that, on October 15, 1671, he established the market in front of the Carmelite Church, which is presently located at Karmeliterplatz. It ran until 1888. The stall proprietors eventually relocated to Karmelitergasse, a nearby street. Since 1910, the market has occupied an area of almost 6,000 m2 and is located on the plaza that presently joins the streets Im Werd, Haid-, Leopolds-, and Krummbaumgasse.

Following World War II, the market was mostly destroyed; restoration work began in 1949. Cement and blast furnace slag were utilized to make the bulk concrete blocks that comprised the restored Karmelitermarkt. During the reconstruction phase, about 110 new market booths were built. In his reopening remarks, Federal President Theodor Körner lauded architect Franz Suppinger and reconstruction committee chairman Rudolf Segel.

The market was refurbished and reopened on March 1, 1997, after an underground parking garage was built underneath it in the mid-1990s.

Cultural activities are now taking place in the Karmelitermarkt. In 2001, the Karmelitermarkt functioned as a virtual museum display area for the “Enterprise Capricorn” project. Furthermore, the market is close the Vienna Crime Museum. The market has served as a location for the television crime series Trautmann.

The market area includes an Islamic butcher and a fisherman, as well as fruit and vegetable kiosks. Several of the restaurants feature Turkish and Georgian cuisine.

Although the weekly market takes place on Fridays, Saturdays are the busiest days. Most stallholders may be located between the hours of early morning and midday. It is unique in that there are traders among them, but the majority are local farmers from the Vienna region. Since the summer of 2008, the Slow Food Initiative has had a sponsored area in the heart of the market dedicated to its activities on Saturday mornings.

Two restaurants that are more in the area of in-gastronomy and have a new audience, but whose appearance is doubtful for the normal market users, have settled since 2010, in addition to market activities.