Graben Panorama
You can see the northeast side of the Graben in Vienna’s Old Town (1. Bezirk). The name goes back to the location as a moat in front of the historical medieval castle wall of Vienna, or the Roman fort Vindobona. For more information see our view of the south side of the Graben with the Graben-Hof. The block on the left, which was scaffolded at the time of the photo, is the “Erste österreichische Spar-Casse”. Then the view wanders from the Jungferngasse with St. Peter’s Church in the background, over the middle street block and the Plague Column (Pestsäule), past the Trattnerhof to the right towards Stephansplatz with the spire of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the background.
Peterskirche
The Rectorate Church of St. Peter is a Roman Catholic church in the 1st district of Vienna. The Peterskirche is considered the oldest church standpoint in Vienna, a simple hall church was already built here in the Roman camp of late antiquity. The present building originates from plans by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt and was completed in 1733.
Building Graben 26-28
The central block of buildings behind the Pestsäule was built in 1874 as a monumental residential and commercial building according to plans by Oswald Meixner in the style of the New Vienna Renaissance. The two slightly protruding risalites on the central part of the building were crowned in 1997 with grid-like metal helmets by Laurids Ortner. Among the stores on the ground floor, the linen store “Zur Schwäbischen Jungfrau” with store signs by Johann Nepomuk Mayer from the Biedermeier period is particularly striking (see detailed pictures). Other stores at the time of the photograph are Escade, the Bistro am Graben, Weidler, Mask Have, the bookshop am Graben Frick, Nägele & Strubel and the master watchmaker Rudolf Hübner.
Trattnerhof
The following complex of buildings is called Trattnerhof, just like the crossing street, and consists of both buildings to the right and left of the street. Here stood the Freisingerhof until the 18th century. The first Trattnerhof from 1776-1911 was built on the initiative of the new owner, the court printer and bookseller Johann Thomas Trattner Edler von Trattner according to plans by Peter Mollner. The building, remarkable for its time and decorated with figures by Tobias Kögler, housed a number of famous tenants, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1784.
After the Trattnerhof was acquired by the Schrantz brothers in 1910, the old Trattnerhof was demolished and the new two-part Trattnerhof was built in its place according to plans by Rudolf Krausz. In the process, the new street to Goldschmiedgasse, also called Trattnerhof, was created. In front of the right building of the Trattnerhof we see the Leopoldsbrunnen, one of two fountains on the Graben, which were provided with statues of Saints Joseph and Leopold at the request of Emperor Leopold I (originally by the sculptor Johann Frühwirth, later replaced by lead figures by Johann Martin Fischer).
Wiener Pestsäule
The Viennese plague column (Pestsäule) was built in the late 17th century and is considered to have been a role model for other plague columns in the monarchy. It was built on the occasion of the end of a plague epidemic in 1679 at the behest of Emperor Leopold I, but was not completed until 1692 under the direction of Paul Strudel. The column, which is almost 19 meters high, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and has an iconographic program in which, on the one hand, the triple number plays a special role and, on the other hand, Leopold’s political goals were illustrated.
