Linienwall

The Linienwall was a four-metre-high earthen rampart with a three-metre ditch that once encircled Vienna’s suburbs. Built in 1704 under Emperor Leopold I, it stretched for 13.5 kilometres from the Danube Canal to Lichtental. The wall had 18 gates with drawbridges and toll houses, where the Liniengeld was collected. Its zigzag design and brick reinforcements in 1738 made it a formidable defence against raids. In 1704, 2,600 residents and 150 students used it to repel an attack by Kuruc rebels. The wall later served as a fiscal boundary, taxing goods entering the city. This created a zone just outside the wall, like Neulerchenfeld, where cheaper food and drink were sold. The chapels built at each gate, dedicated to John of Nepomuk, offered travellers a place to pray. Only two original chapels remain today, one moved slightly from its original position. Another was rebuilt near the Vienna Volksoper after the railway viaduct was constructed. Few traces of the Linienwall survive today. Small sections can be seen along the S-Bahn tracks between Rennweg and Südbahnhof stations. Another fragment stands in the yard of Weyringergasse 13 in the 4th District. The wall was finally removed in 1894 to make way for the Vienna Beltway and the Metropolitan Railway. Its legacy lives on in the wide Gürtel road and the scattered remnants that mark its former path.