Magistratisches Bezirksamt Favoriten

The Magistratisches Bezirksamt Favoriten stands in the heart of Vienna’s 10th district, Favoriten, forming part of a grand block bounded by Keplergasse, Keplerplatz, Gudrunstraße and Laxenburger Straße. Designed in a late 19th-century neo-Gothic style with exposed brickwork, the building was completed in 1883 under city architects Friedrich Paul and Josef Pürzl. It united existing institutions—two Volksschulen, a orphanage and the parish house of St Johann the Evangelist—into a single enclosed ensemble. The symmetrical façade on Gudrunstraße features a richly decorated central projection with lower wings, while the first floor’s pointed windows conceal the grand ceremonial hall. Between 1882 and 1909 the building also housed Favoriten’s first fire brigade before they moved to the old gasworks site. Heavy bombing and artillery fire in 1944–45 left the structure badly damaged, yet reconstruction began immediately after the war. Inside, visitors find the restored neo-Gothic interiors and the district council chamber where local representatives meet. The surrounding streetscape still carries the scale and style of the 1870s–80s expansion, with schools and church grouped around the block. From the Keplerplatz side the ensemble’s unity is clear, offering a quiet corner of historical Vienna away from the city centre.