Hackenberg, Vienna

The Hackenberg is a hill in the Sievering district of Vienna’s 19th borough, Döbling. Rising to 306 metres, it sits between two canalised streams, the Arbesbach to the north-east and the Krottenbach to the south-west. The hill’s name first appears in a 13th-century purchase document for Rudolph I of Bohemia, where it is called ‘hakkenperge’. Older ideas linking the name to a person called Hacko have been rejected by scholars. Sand and gravel cover the slopes, while the Krim district borders the hill to the west. In the Middle Ages a village named Chlaintzing stood on the south-western slope, surrounded by vineyards that later disappeared. Today small settlements dot the hillside, yet a handful of vineyards still cling to its lower flanks. Near the summit, on the Krottenbachstraße side, a freshwater reservoir supplies part of the city. The Sieveringer Friedhof, established in 1883, occupies the south-western side of the hill. Visitors find a quiet green mound rising above urban Vienna. A cemetery occupies one flank, its graves framed by mature trees. The reservoir building near the top is unobtrusive, blending into the landscape. Paths wind through scattered houses and surviving vineyards, offering glimpses of the two canalised streams below. On clear days the view from the summit stretches across the city to the Vienna Woods.