Stephansplatz, Vienna

The St. Stephen's Square is the center of the Austrian capital. In the middle of the St. Stephen's Cathedral stands. The southwestern corner of St. Stephen's Square and the eastern end of the blunt leading- trench, as well as the northern end of the Carinthian street are connected by the Stock-im - Eisen-Platz, the north-eastern corner is the beginning of the Rotenturmstraße and the conflagration. The western corner is limited by the onset of Schuler Road, in the southeast opens next to the Archbishop's House Chur Chur a the alley.

The Stephansplatz is outside the main entrance of the cathedral ( Riesentor ) at an altitude of 14.6 m above the Viennese zero, therefore at 171.28 m above sea level. A. It is of Rotenturmstraße ( 14.4 m ) towards the Stock-im - Eisen-Platz ( 15.1 m) rising slightly, the highest point is located on the Chur alley at 15.4 m above sea level. W. N.

History

At the beginning of the construction of the later cathedral in the 12th century (consecrated in 1147 ) the church building was outside the city walls of Vienna. Only with the expansion of the city in 1200 reached St. Stephen in the protection of Walling. As development of the St. Stephen's Square in the 13th century following buildings are detectable: a vicarage, mentioned in 1222; a house of protonotary, 1214; a house of the chaplain, from 1214; a house owned by pin Zwettl 1228; Karner, 1227; a house of the Teutonic Order, 1222; a priest's house, to 1309 detectable; a school detectable since 1237.

The church was then surrounded by a cemetery. You and thus also the place were drawn around the mid-13th century by several town fires affected. The early 14th century began the construction of the choir ( 1304-1340 ). In 1301 is on Stephansplatz Mary Magdalene Chapel detectable. In the 14th century, including the Füchselhof was built in the 15th century, the Barleiherhaus and Heiltumstuhl from 1483rd Despite the ongoing construction at the Cathedral of St. Stephen's Square was a central place for communication of the urban population, as a place of funerals, processions at high holidays (Easter, Pentecost, Christmas and All Saints ), Passion Play, flaunts, markets and probably lawsuits. The cemetery was then apparently also place for gambling, as proven prohibitions by the Prince. The medieval appearance of the place is difficult to reconstruct because of the associated with the cathedral building many wooden racks. The location of the cemetery gates as well as the positioning of the church portals, these paths can be reconstructed.

As access to the old St. Stephen's Freithof existed in the 15th century following goals:

• The Messnertor · 1466
• The Leopold or Schulertor
• The Stephen's or Hüttentor
• The Zinnertor · 1466

In 1500, the Cathedral and Cathedral Square were already established as the center of the Habsburg royal residence and fortified town.

So the Heiltumsstuhl in 1699 demolished at the end of the 18th century, one-story row of houses before: For this function, the St. Stephen's Square as the center of Vienna's numerous changes that were primarily made out of consideration to the needs of traffic and the service sector resulted in the following centuries eliminated Riesentor and abandoned in 1732, the cemetery. The Magdalene chapel was on September 12, 1781 victims of a fire, the rediscovered under their preferred Virgilkapelle only in 1973 during the construction of the subway. At the end of the 19th century, the whole place and its surroundings a fundamental historicist transformation was subjected to compaction development. ( Surface tear to the neighboring conflagration, transfer back to the building line at Stock-im - Eisen-Platz, eliminating Schmidlinsches house etc. ). In this context, the Stephansplatz was shortly also become a center of retail trade, such as the department store Rothenberger and squeezed between its two business houses house of Anton Kranner. Another thrust of centralizing development started after the destruction at the end of the Second World War. The fire of the Dome in April 1945 came from homes of Stephansplatz and spread to several other over. The reconstruction took place - according to urban development competition 1946 - especially on the west side of the square, in a modernized and more condensed form. On special discussions of the construction of the so-called Haas House led after 1945 and in the 1980s. But It was a total no strengthening of the retail function.

After the Vienna city planning around 1960, such as Roland Rainer transport concept from 1961, still an "excessive " promote the centrality of the inner city and thus a metro Cross St. Stephen's Cathedral was faced adverse, it came to around the mid -1960s a rethink. The end of September 1965, the then Transport Councillor Kurt Heller before the new general transport plan for Vienna, the of that very subway Cross foresaw prominent. Since 18 November 1978, the Stephansplatz is developed by the radial line of the Vienna U- Bahn U1, since 6 April 1991, this north-south line crosses here with the east- west line U3. The section between the stations Karlsplatz and Stephansplatz is the most frequented of the Vienna U- Bahn network. As the central hub of the subway and pedestrian zone, the Stephansplatz today the undisputed center of the Austrian capital dar.