For our last night in Vienna we treated ourselves to a concert at the Schonbrunn Palace. A twenty strong orchestra kept us enthralled in sumptuous surroundings for a couple of hours. Opera singers belted out something but sadly we couldn’t afford the programme and so we’ll never know what we were listening to.
Our exit from Vienna followed the EuroVelo 9 along the Wiener Neustädtler Kanal threading it’s way through the suburbs and countryside. Mercifully the rain is now long gone and the cycling conditions idyllic with sunshine, no wind and peak temperatures of around 20 C.
Translation of poster
Wiener Neustädter Canal
Sollenau section
In 1955, lock 36, just after the Piesting aqueduct, still made a functional impression. The locks were sold in the 1950s.
The wooden trough over the Piesting reached the end of its service life in 1954 and was replaced by a prestressed concrete bridge. The parallel cycle path bridge has been in place since 2001.
Sollenau, 275 m above sea level, north-east.
INTERESTING FACTS
The most impressive canal structures originally included 14 aqueducts, seven of which are still in use today (over Kehrbach, Warme Fischa, Piesting, Triesting, Triesting-Hochwassergraben, Schwechat, Badener Mühlbach). The canal crossed the Warme Fischa, the Liesing and the Krottenbach near Biedermannsdorf on brick bridges
(a wooden trough was installed in 1839). The other aqueducts had wooden supporting structures and troughs, the one over the Schwechat had stone pillars.
Wooden troughs, which like lock gates had to be rebuilt every 20 to 30 years, were replaced by concrete structures after 1900.
The Sollenau train station was opened in 1883. In addition to the Aspangbahn Vienna - Aspang, which belonged to the private canal company until the Second World War, trains ran from here to Wittmannsdorf, Ebenfurth and via Steinabrückl to Puchberg am Schneeberg. In 1975 the station was closed when the railway line was relocated.
WORTH SEEING
St. Laurentius Church
The Church of St. Laurentius, built as a fortified church before 1200, has a monumental ashlar tower, which can also be found in the market town's coat of arms. After many renovations over the centuries, the interior of the parish church "Zum guten Hirten im Steinfeld" is now presented in the style of the 1550s.
Leopold Grünzweig Center
The spectrum of cultural events ranges from the annual New Year's concert to theater performances, readings and lectures to exhibitions and the gourmet fair.
From the history of industry...
The cotton spinning mill, founded in 1811 by Peter von Braun on the site of an older factory, used the water power of the Piesting. Around 1840, almost 400 people, including many children, worked in the company. After several changes of ownership, yarn production was stopped in 1928. A shrine with an eagle has been preserved from the former workers' quarter "Adlerhof".
A train of the Aspangbahn in 1909 near Sollenau, an important junction station and departure station for the "k.u.k. Military towing beans at Steinfeld".
WIENER
MERWALD noe "regional
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HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON THE CANAL
The artificial waterway opened in 1803 is one of the oldest industrial monuments in
Austria.
Initially privately financed, but soon nationalized, the originally 65 km long canal connected the Wiener Neustadt area with.
Vienna. The 100 m difference in height to the harbor at today's Wien Mitte train station was overcome by 50 lock chambers. One horse was enough to pull 23 m long and 2 m wide ships with loads of up to 30 t - mainly coal, wood and bricks - at 4 km/h.
Planned canal extensions to Sopron, Györ and Trieste were not carried out, mainly for financial reasons. Private tenants operated the canal from 1822 with great economic success, before scheduled shipping was stopped in 1879 due to competition from the railway. The canal, which is now 36 km long, has belonged to the province of Lower Austria since 1956 and serves as a factory canal and a local recreation area.