Arbeitsamt Wiener Neustadt

A low garden pavilion called the Sala Terrena stands against the old city wall in Wiener Neustadt, a town south of Vienna. Built in the late 17th century as a summer retreat, it is one of the few surviving Baroque garden houses in the region. The pavilion once belonged to a larger citizen’s house whose southern wall forms part of the town’s medieval fortifications. The Sala Terrena is worth seeing for its fine stonework and a single striking artwork. Its broad segmental archway is decorated with carved masks, laurel frames and shell motifs. Above a narrow passage in the south gable, a mural by Sol LeWitt uses red for the town and green for the surrounding landscape, painted around 1997. Visitors find a rectangular room under a sloping roof, entered through the richly carved portal. The mural on the outer wall can be viewed from the street without entering the courtyard. The surrounding town wall and nearby Neunkirchner Gate foundations add to the historic setting.