Allegoric representations of military virtues made of sandstone are featured on and in front of the facade, created by Hans Gasser, one of the most influential sculptors of his time. The dovetail crenellation is interrupted by turrets at the axes of the side wings and at the corners of the central part of the building, with terracotta trophy sculptures positioned inside their alcoves. The richly adorned attic section is borne by a magnificent lombard band reminiscent of Florentine palazzi. #Vienna arsenal windows#The brickwork, consisting of two-tone bricks, is decorated with terracotta ornaments and wrought iron clasps, the segmentation of the façade is set off in natural stone, and the median risalit is rich with decorative elements such as the three round windows in front of the side wings. What really stands out is the characteristic brickwork structure. He borrowed Byzantine style elements, adding some Gothic elements in the process. Just as many other historicist buildings borrowed models from historic architecture, Theophil Hansen chose the Venetian Arsenal, built after 1104, as his prototype. Hansen's plan provided for a 235-meter long building with protruding transverse sections and corner towers, and a tower-like central segment with a square shape, crowned with a dome, with a total height of 43 meters. Along the south-west side of the Arsenal ran the Vienna-Raab railway, for which the main Vienna station, the Wiener Bahnhof had been opened in 1848. The museum was completed on, just six years after the beginning of construction (15 April 1850), making it the oldest museum building – planned and executed as such – in Austria.Īt the time of its construction, the Arsenal was located outside the outer ring of fortifications in 1850, however, the area was incorporated into Vienna along with the original Favoriten (4th District as of 1874, 10th District since 1938, the Arsenal forms part of Vienna's 3rd District). It was Danish architect Theophil Hansen who designed what was then referred to as the weapons museum. The Arsenal was the largest building project of the young Kaiser Franz Joseph I in his first years of reign, and served to consolidate his neoabsolutist position of power, as opposed to the revolutionary Vienna of 1848. The museum building (Arsenal object number 18) is the centrepiece of Vienna's Arsenal, a huge military complex previously consisting of a total of 72 buildings erected in the wake of the 1848/49 revolution.
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