Otto Wagner Pavilion (3) - 23 August 2017

One of the greatest joys of my most recent visit to Vienna was to discover and learn more about the works of Otto Wagner. Prominent amongst these were the stations of the Stadtbahn which are very beautiful, poised delicately as they are between the ornate and the simple.

The Stadtbahn was absorbed into the U-Bahn and, in parts, the S-Bahn but many of the station buildings survive although only Stadtpark is near-original at platform level.

The Otto Wagner Pavilion at Karlsplatz (1898) consists of two identical original station buildings facing each other. The west pavilion contains a permanent exhibition on the works of Otto Wagner presented by Wien Museum. The buildings are in a slightly different, more elevated, location than in the past and were, incredibly, under threat when the U-Bahn station complex was redeveloped. The exhibition is fascinating and the building, seen here in near-ideal light, is undeniably beautiful.

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