Der Maria-Theresien-Platz in Wien. Entstehung und Entwicklung eines gärtnerischen Schmuckplatzes des Historismus

Abstract

Summary The Maria Theresia square, situated between the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna/Austria, is as well part of the extensive complex of the Royal Imperial Castle, as of the 19th century-Boulevard called Ringstrasse. The now existing garden was designed in cooperation by the architect Karl Hasenauer and the garden inspector of the Schönbrunn gardens, Adolf Vetter, and carried out in 1884–1888. It's a splendid example of the formal Garden Art of the Historicism style in the late Imperial era in Austria. Vetter also designed the gardens at the Hermesvilla near Vienna and the parterres at the Great Conservatory in the Schönbrunn Gardens in a similar design. As yet unknown, there also existed a previous garden on this square from 1866–1884, created by the head gardener and later garden director Franz Antoine. The Maria Theresia square is dominated by the huge sculpture of the Empress Maria Theresia. The sunken parterres of the garden square originally showed an extensive pattern of evergreen topiary plants. As the original planting structures are partly lost and the still existing trees and shrubs have reached outsized dimensions, a reconstruction of the original garden design would be highly desirable.