Ringturm

The Ringturm is a stunning high-rise structure in a prominent position in Vienna that houses the Vienna Insurance Group’s headquarters.It was erected between 1953 and 1955 on the Schottenring within the Vienna Ringstrasse, following to plans by Erich Boltenstern, and is located at the Schottenring station of the Wiener Linien. The 73-meter-high ring tower (93-meter-high including the weather light column) was regarded as an innovative project for city reconstruction, a symbol of the emerging capital economy in the western occupation zones, and a “raised index finger in the direction of the backward, Russian-occupied zone on the other side of the Danube Canal.” The original concept was to construct a high-rise skyscraper on either side of the Schottenring – a “quasi-future gateway.” However, the concept of constructing a second tower was abandoned after 1955.

The former structure on this land was the only one in the whole Schottenring that was destroyed during WWII.The Ringturm is the second highest structure on the Vienna Ringstrasse, with 23 storeys and a 20-meter-high weather lighthouse.Only St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the Gothic style is taller.The office skyscraper has a total floor space of 12,000 square meters.In 1996, the façade and portions of the Ringturm were refurbished.

Since 1998, the free-admission exhibition series “Architecture in the Ringturm” has included architecture from Austria, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Balkans.The ORF shows Lebenskünstler with Helmut Zilk and Kabaret im Turm were recorded at the Ringturm, among other things.

The 20-meter-high weather lighthouse on the roof employs 117 lights (39 each white, red, and green) in various colored and occasionally moving or flashing light signals to depict the weather trend for the day ahead.This light column is directly linked to the ZAMG (Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics) atop Vienna’s Hohe Warte.It also has two red air traffic control lights on top.