Wettsteinpark

The Wettsteinpark is a park in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt area.It is a linear bank park that runs between the Danube Canal and the Obere Donaustraße, roughly from the Siemens-Nixdorf-Steg to the Rossauer Bridge.It takes its name from the Austrian botanist Richard Wettstein.

The artificial stone sculpture Seated and Lying, made by the sculptress Hilde Uray in 1956, is located in the heart of the 30,000 m2 park, which is approximately 80 m wide at its widest point.Felix Weiss’ bronze sculpture Ruf der Jugend first stood on the natural stone foundation in 1931. This was melted down in 1938, following the “Annexation of Austria,” as part of an anti-Semitic “demolition of the Viennese cityscape” for which Wilhelm Frass was responsible as clerk for sculpture at the Vienna Cultural Office.A semi-circular cast stone pergola with wooden covers surrounds a section of the circular area on Obere Donaustraße.The facilities and grounds of the Vienna City Gardens Office are located near the park’s southern end, in a fenced-in section that is not open to the public.Between this section of the Stadtgartenamt and the circular square, there is a tiny, fenced-in children’s playground.A cycling path runs along the Obere Donaustraße, with the Anton-Schmid-Promenade on the bank side and an embankment strip between it and the Danube Canal bank.The main trail runs through the center of the park, parallel to the park’s longitudinal axis.The park’s tree stock includes, among other things, Norway maple, hybrid sycamore, and pyramidal poplar.

In 1934, a rose garden was planted around the park’s centerpiece sculpture on the park’s circular square.This rose garden, which was rebuilt in 1996, comprises 317 different species of roses over an area of 1300 m2.The Alberic Barbier climbing rose, bred in 1900, was the oldest variety.The rosarium began a three-year general makeover in 2015, during which the rose bushes will be replaced with wild roses and other flowers, trees and shrubs will be pruned, and the pergola will be refurbished or repaired.The eradication of the rose plants sparked political debate in the district.