Friedensbrücke

The U-Bahn station Friedensbrücke stands beside the Donaukanal in Vienna’s ninth district, Alsergrund. It sits at ground level between the canal’s towpath and Spittelauer Lände. The station was designed by Otto Wagner for the Commission for Traffic Installations and finished in March 1900. It opened in August 1901 as part of the steam-powered city railway under the name Brigittabrücke. After wartime closure in 1918, it reopened in 1925 for the electric city railway and took its present name in 1926. The station is worth the journey for its wide central platform, a relic of its past as a junction where two lines split until 1976. Friedensbrücke was among the first two U-Bahn stations in Vienna when the U4 line began in May 1976. Between 1989 and 1991 the U6 line also served the station. Otto Wagner’s original entrance building survives on the south side, reached by stairs and an escalator. Visitors find a spacious platform with platform-level lighting and tiled surfaces in muted greens and whites. The south exit leads to a small square and the tram stops on the Friedensbrücke itself. A lift was added in the 1990s on the north side for access to Gussenbauergasse. The station’s architecture and the nearby bridge over the canal give a clear view of the Donaukanal’s banks and the city beyond.