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25-468: The Gürtel was laid out from 1873 at the site of the former Linienwall fortification, built under Emperor Leopold I at the beginning of the 18th century to protect his residence from kuruc invasions in the course of Rákóczi's War for Independence . After World War I , the road became the construction site for several public housing estates ( Gemeindebauten ) in the era of Red Vienna . As in most parts of Austria-Hungary , vehicles formerly moved on

50-551: A Pfostenschlitzmauer or "post-slot wall". Vitrified ramparts were composed of stone that was subsequently fired, possibly to increase its strength. Many types of early fortification, from prehistory through to the Early Middle Ages , employed earth ramparts usually in combination with external ditches to defend the outer perimeter of a fortified site or settlement. Hillforts , ringforts or "raths" and ringworks all made use of ditch and rampart defences, and they are

75-562: A lower profile, one of earliest examples first being Ravenscraig Castle in Scotland which was built in 1460. In the first half of the 16th century, the solid masonry walls began to be replaced by earthen banks, sometimes faced with stone, which were better able to withstand the impact of shot; the earth being obtained from the ditch which was dug in front of the rampart. At the same time, the plan or "trace" of these ramparts began to be formed into angular projections called bastions which allowed

100-513: A place for all travellers to and from the city to pray or hear mass at the city limit. The only remaining chapel still in its original position is the Hundsturmer Kapelle in the Margareten district. There is also an original chapel dedicated to Johannes Nepomuk am Tabor at the border between the 2nd and 20th districts, but it has been moved a few metres from its original position. One of

125-520: A significantly cheaper rate. By the mid-19th century, long after the Linienwall had become militarily obsolete, Vienna was growing at a rapid rate. As railway and road construction kept pace with this growth, eventually the space occupied by the fortifications was replaced with transportation facilities. For example, in 1846 the terminus for the South Railway and East Railway was built right outside

150-475: Is how the area remains today. Besides the Hundsturmer Chapel, there are only a few sections of the Linienwall left which can be seen in the following locations: 48°11′19″N 16°22′41″E  /  48.18861°N 16.37806°E  / 48.18861; 16.37806 Rampart (fortification) In fortification architecture, a rampart is a length of embankment or wall forming part of

175-776: Is not to be confused with B 221 Wiener Gürtel Straße which includes other streets like Schlachthausgasse, starts at the Donaukanal and ends at the Gürtelbrücke , again at Donaukanal. In the south it starts in the Landstraße district, at the junction with A23 Südosttangente and runs westward toward the Central Station , where the Vienna Pre-metro has been built under surface. There the Wiedner Gürtel and Margaretengürtel mark

200-537: The Middle Ages and Early Modern times, ramparts continued to form part of the defences, but now they tended to consist of thick walls with crenellated parapets. Fieldworks , however, continued to make use of earth ramparts due to their relatively temporary nature. Elements of a rampart in a stone castle or town wall from the 11th to 15th centuries included: In response to the introduction of artillery , castle ramparts began to be built with much thicker walling and

225-543: The Belvedere Gate at Südbahnhof (South Station). In 1858 another station, Wien Westbahnhof was built outside of Mariahilfer Gate. From 1862 to 1873, the first part of the ring roads (the Gürtel mentioned above) was built directly outside of the walls. In 1874, the unincorporated parts of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th districts that lay outside of the wall were incorporated as a new 10th district, Favoriten . On 18 December 1890

250-484: The U6 U-Bahn line. 48°11′57″N 16°20′19″E  /  48.1991666667°N 16.3386944444°E  / 48.1991666667; 16.3386944444 [REDACTED] Media related to Gürtel, Vienna at Wikimedia Commons Linienwall The Linienwall was the outer line of the fortifications for the city of Vienna, Austria , that lay between the city’s suburbs and outlying villages. Constructed in 1704, it

275-521: The aforementioned Kuruc. It did, however, protect revolutionaries during the Revolutions of 1848 from government forces. From 1829 on, the walls (specifically the gates leading into the city) primarily served as a location to charge a road toll , the Liniengeld on modes of transport entering the city, therefore representing a fiscal and legal as well as physical limit to the city. The suburbs inside of

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300-618: The border of Wieden and Margareten with the southern Favoriten suburb. The Gürtel then turns north, running along the eastern rim of the Meidling suburb, crossing the Wienfluss and the Wienzeile road, separating the inner city districts of Mariahilf and Neubau in the east from Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus with the Westbahnhof . The road continues as the border of Josefstadt and Alsergrund with

325-590: The chapels was removed during the construction of Otto Wagner's Vienna Metropolitan Railway in 1898. A replacement chapel was built at this time which now stands near the Vienna Volksoper between the viaduct for the railway (now part of the Vienna u-bahn ) and the Vienna Beltway known as Gürtel . A foreign army never seriously tested the military utility of the Linienwall , but it did discourage raids by

350-407: The characteristic feature of circular ramparts . The ramparts could be reinforced and raised in height by the use of palisades . This type of arrangement was a feature of the motte and bailey castle of northern Europe in the early medieval period. During the classical era , societies became sophisticated enough to create tall ramparts of stone or brick, provided with a platform or wall walk for

375-473: The city via drawbridges and gates; each of these locations additionally included a custom house where a toll, the Liniengeld was charged. On June 11, 1704 the Linienwall helped a group of 2,600 Viennese residents along with 150 students repel an attack by the Kuruc. Between 1740 and 1760, a chapel dedicated to John of Nepomuk was built at each of the 18 city gates. These chapels were intended to provide

400-524: The decision was made to incorporate the remaining outlying suburbs from 1 January 1892. This decision rendered the fortifications as a duty control limit obsolete. The remainders of the Linienwall were removed in March 1894, leaving behind a very wide belt around the city. Starting in 1895 this area was filled with a second ring road as well as the viaduct for the Vienna Metropolitan Railway, which

425-614: The defenders to hurl missiles from and a parapet to protect them from the missiles thrown by attackers. Well known examples of classical stone ramparts include Hadrian's Wall and the Walls of Constantinople . After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , there was a return to the widespread use of earthwork ramparts which lasted well into the 11th century, an example is the Norman motte and bailey castle . As castle technology evolved during

450-551: The defensive boundary of a castle , hillfort , settlement or other fortified site. It is usually broad-topped and made of excavated earth and/or masonry . The composition and design of ramparts varied from the simple mounds of earth and stone, known as dump ramparts, to more complex earth and timber defences (box ramparts and timberlaced ramparts), as well as ramparts with stone revetments. One particular type, common in Central Europe, used earth, stone and timber posts to form

475-428: The guns mounted on them to create zones of interlocking fire . This bastion system became known as the trace italienne because Italian engineers had been at the forefront of its development, although it was later perfected in northern Europe by engineers such as Van Coehoorn and Vauban and was the dominant style of fortification until the mid-19th century. Elements of a rampart in an artillery fortification from

500-656: The left, like in Britain, until after the Anschluss in 1938. According to German regulations, traffic in Vienna was redirected to pass on the right as elsewhere on the Continent. Plans developed in the 1960s and 70s to rebuild the Gürtel as a city motorway have never been carried out. The road, like the adjacent residential areas, is however strongly affected by the high traffic volume. The Gürtel

525-615: The outer Hernals and Währing districts, passing the General Hospital ( Allgemeines Krankenhaus, AKH ) and the Volksoper . It ends relatively unspectecular in Döbling district at a Gemeindebau from the 1920s called Professor-Jodl-Hof From the Wienzeile to the northern end, the dual carriageway is accompanied by the historic Stadtbahn viaduct designed by Otto Wagner , today operated by

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550-444: The residents of Vienna and its suburbs between the age of 18 and 60 years old were required to work (or provide a replacement worker) on the fortifications, which consisted of a zigzagging, palisade-reinforced, earthen rampart , four metres high by four metres wide, and a three-metre-deep ditch . Construction was completed in only four months. In 1738, the earthworks were reinforced with a layer of bricks. The fortifications encircled

575-574: The suburbs from the Danube Canal at Sankt Marx (today Vienna’s 3rd District) to Lichtental (part of the 9th District), a distance of 13.5 km. It thus separated physically the Vorstädte or suburbs (today’s 3rd through 9th districts, incorporated into Vienna in 1850) from the Vororte or outlying places (today’s 10th through 19th districts, incorporated 1892). The most important arterial roads entered

600-476: The walls were thus taxed at a higher rate than those outside the walls even before their formal incorporation into the city in 1850. One consequence of this was the establishment of a great number of restaurants and hotels in the Neulerchenfeld (now part of the 16th District ) right outside of the wall (dubbed the "Holy Roman Empire’s biggest pub") who took advantage of the lower taxes to sell food and drinks at

625-615: Was razed in 1894 to make way for the Vienna Beltway . The construction of the Linienwall was begun by order of Emperor Leopold I in 1704 to protect against attacks by the Turks and the Kuruc (a group of anti- Habsburg rebels). It was part of a defensive line that followed the Austro-Hungarian border as delineated by the Danube , March , and Leitha rivers as well as by Lake Neusiedl . All of

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