Haus des Meeres

The house of the sea is next to the Tiergarten Schönbrunn and the Lainzer Tiergarten one of three zoos in Vienna. The mainly composed vivarium facility is located in the 6th district of Vienna Mariahilf.

General Information

The house of the sea reveals more than 10,000 animals on more than 4,000 sqm. The focus of the zoo is the aquarium keeping animals preferably from the Mediterranean and tropical freshwater and marine habitats, such as piranhas, sea turtles and coral. With over half a million visitors in 2013 the house was pleased to report record for the umpteenth time. It is thus one of the most visited attractions of the city of Vienna.

The offer is supplemented by a terrarium and a tropical house with birds, fruit bats and monkeys (among marmosets ), which are not separated by mesh or glass panes of the visitors.

History

A special feature of the house of the sea is the accommodation in a former flak bunker from the Second World War in Esterhazy Park. One of the founding of the Association Society for Marine Biology on November 26, 1957 President was Fritz Hartel, Vice President Viktor Otte, by scientists and business people, the goal was clear, in the former Flakturm Esterházypark a " House of the Sea ", the first seawater aquarium in Austria to establish. This facility should also be expanded into a center of European marine research. The scientific management took over Rupert Riedl and Ferdinand Star Muehlner. By 1965, the first one and a half floors of the building were adapted and furnished 40 display tanks, in the first years of the discs also scrapped car of the Vienna tram were used. On 24 May 1973, the change in the association's name was in the house of the sea - Vivarium Wien what the actual field of activity, as he now represented, should better take into account. In the following decades the building services were developed successively more floors, renovated and expanded the animal population.

In collaboration with Kurt Kolar, who later became vice-director of the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, the Vivarium 1992 has been extended to a quarantine station for confiscated and abandoned reptiles that still exists today. On 23 January 1997, after two years of construction, the new shark and turtle tanks, then opened with a system volume of over 120,000 liters of one of the largest marine aquariums in Europe. Since 1998, all floors of the building are accessible again also served by a lift, since after the end of the war no longer functioning old elevator was replaced. For the welfare of giant snakes, iguanas, lizards, Agamas, Mambas and other reptiles and on the occasion of the 40th anniversary exhibition several large terrariums the public were presented on 30 June 1999.

The most obvious extension from outside the vivarium, the tropical house on the west facade, was opened a year after September 7, 2000. This construction conservatory similar fitted with glass walls offers visitors the opportunity to free-flying birds, flying foxes, freewheeling marmoset monkeys, turtles observed, inter alia, in a tropical climate, contributing decisively to a new record of 180,000 visitors in a year.

A special section devoted to native fish species was opened on 22 May 2002. Visitor numbers rose continuously and the house of the sea, certified since 2003 according to European directives as Zoo, 2004 was one for the first time more than 250,000 visitors. In the same year, the sixth level building was opened with an aqua terrarium for horseshoe crabs. Since April 2007 to enter the all-around leading platform for visitors to the house is possible.

On May 7, 2007, after delays due to technical problems, the largest aquarium tank in Austria was opened with the Hans & Lotte Hass shark tank. The basin dedicated to divers and marine scientists Hans Hass and his wife holds 300,000 liters and is home to after in the relocation of six sharks died, one each Teppichhai and a white tip reef shark, several blacktip reef sharks, an Atlantic green turtle (Chelonia mydas) and various other marine fish.

In 2009, an increase for the restaurant preferred by the majority in a survey in the district. The visitor area of the zoo extends from July 2010 across all nine floors and the roof terrace. In the summer of 2013, a further expansion to be completed in the course of which a new pool for the hammerheads is built. In the upper floors there are 22 picture panels on the history of anti-aircraft towers as well as the permanent exhibition Remind inside which - housed in the former command room of the Leitturms - deals with the historical and technical function of this building.

Pictures

Whitetip reef shark

Teppichanemone

Corals anemones