Volksgarten, Vienna

Volksgarten is a public park whose history begins with a remarkable change of purpose: it opened in 1823 as Vienna’s first public park, after land connected with the Hofburg fortifications was reshaped for public use. The garden covers five hectares, and its design brings together Ludwig Gabriel von Remy’s concept with the horticultural work of Franz Antoine. Look toward the long, formal paths and clipped planting beds: on the Ringstraße side, the layout follows a French baroque scheme, while the Hofburg side has the looser character of an English park.

The most imposing feature is the Theseus Temple, built between 1819 and 1823 by Peter von Nobile. It was created to house Antonio Canova’s sculpture of Theseus defeating a centaur; that sculpture moved to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1890. The rose garden contains over 3,000 bushes representing more than 200 varieties.

Near it, the Elisabeth memorial places the empress before a semicircular wall, with a pond and fountains beyond. The park also preserves a public toilet built in 1884, among Vienna’s oldest facilities of its kind.