The history
of the
Hotel Austria.
Hotel AUSTRIA is situated in one of the oldest parts of the city of Vienna, directly beside the erstwhile Roman military camp Vindobona, and lies at Wolfengasse, at the end of a cul-de-sac between Fleischmarkt and Heiligenkreuzerhof.
Insights into the history of Hotel Austria
The first building in this location stood in the middle of Wolfengasse between the present-day Hotel AUSTRIA and the building directly opposite it. From the year 1457, this building originally accommodated a boarding house and was known as “Bursa Leonis“ (Lions’ Bursa). In the year 1587, the building, a restaurant and inn, was named “Zum Weissen Wolffen” after its new owner, carriage entrepreneur and proprietor Wolf Weiß. Until the year 1848, the “Weisse Wolf” (white wolves) was considered one of the most popular and best restaurants of the city, where messengers and coachmen from Moravia and Hungary like to drop by and get a bite to eat.
In the revolutionary year 1848, this estate was acquired by the present- day “Landesinnung Bau Wien” and the restaurant was torn down. The Innungshaus Wolfengasse 4 (one of Vienna`s first Neogothic buildings) was built opposite. In order to receive trade authorization for being a commercial establishment (as an inn), the Hotel “Weisser Wolf” was built and in 1850 the first tenants took over the Hotel “Zum Weissen Wolf”.
On November 8, 1944 the wreckage of an aircraft bomb in the Hotel came to an explosion during which many people were killed and the building destroyed. The reconstruction was begun in 1953 and on February 28, 1955, the Hotel was reopened under the name “AUSTRIA”. In 2005, the 50th anniversary of the new Hotel AUSTRIA was duly celebrated.
