GIANT FERRIS WHEEL OF VIENNA
The Third Man and the 100 Year Amusement Ride
It
has been a Vienna landmark for over 100 years, built in 1897 on the
grounds
of an amusement
park on the city outskirts to celebrate
the Golden Jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I. Vienna’s Giant
Ferris Wheel, the Wiener Reisenrad, was for the longest time the world’s
largest riding wheel, not designed by Ferris, but by the English engineer
Walter B. Basset, who had built other wheels in Blackpool and London.
The giant wheel in Vienna, with its great views of the city, was made a
world famous landmark of infamy when the character of Harry Lime played
by
Orson Wells
in the
movie “The
Third Man” justified his villainy for marketing a counterfeit polio
vaccine in postwar ravaged Vienna by pointing to tiny figures of people
far below, and asking “would you really care if one of those dots
just stopped moving?”…
The
Giant Wheel in Vienna is located at the entrance of the Prater, the
play
park of amusement
rides now just two subway stops from Vienna’s
old town tram ring. The Prater was first opened as a leisure park for
the people of Vienna on the former Imperial hunting grounds of the emperor
in 1766. Before that it had been a soggy flood plain of the Danube River,
where in the 1600s the Polish Cavalry came to Vienna’s aide in turning the Turks
away from Vienna's gates. The Prater became the site of the World's Fair of 1898, where
a model city of Venice was built, complete with canals, 
and
the Prater became known as “Venice in Vienna”, featuring an
early roller-coaster ride through a mountain long before Disneyland's
Matterhorn. Two world wars took their toll on the Prater Park, but
the Giant Ferris
Wheel
survived. Most of the original cabins of the wheel were burned in the bombing
and fires, with the current cabins built in 1947. The wheel now turns
with only 15 cabins, instead of the 30 of its original design. The cabins
can hold about 20 people standing. Six of the cabins have been furnished
in luxurious style for outing rental: birthdays, romantic dinners, marriage
proposals
or children’s parties.
Underneath
the Giant Ferris Wheel of Vienna in the entrance kiosk are some of
the original
cabins, not remounted on the wheel, but displaying
the history of the wheel and the Prater with miniature models, hundreds
of hand-made figures and a panorama of old Vienna. There is also a restaurant,
gift shop and photo booth with the wheel view of the city as background.
The Reisenradplatz is a modern center built around the wheel’s
base for restaurants and entertainment venues. Cost to ride the wheel
is 9 Euro for adults, 4 Euro for children 3 to 14. Family tickets
are available. Entrance to the Prater Park is free. The rides from merry-go-rounds
and
miniature
train
rides to roller coasters and game casinos, all you’d expect of a
modern carnival amusement park along with the historical attractions,
range from 1 euro to 10 euro depending on the ride. The park season is
from March to October, with many of the rides closed from November to
February, but the park and the Giant Wheel are open all year (see Wiener Wiesn - Vienna's Oktoberfest). The subway
stop is the Prater-Stern on the U1 line.
The Third Man
For fans of The Third Man film based on the Graham Green novel of postwar
Vienna, the giant wheel is the most recognizable symbol to visit in Vienna,
but many more locations still exist. A Third
Man Tour offers a trip into
the sewers where one of the most famous foot chases of film history took
place, part of it in the canals of the Esperanto Park. The Third
Man Museum houses a collection of images and memorabilia from the movie.
It is a bit out in the suburbs and only open on Saturday from 2pm to
6pm or Tuesdays 6pm to 8pm by arrangement. The film itself is shown at
the Vienna Burgkino (not to be confused with Burger King) every Friday
at 10:45pm and Sunday and Tuesday afternoons. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Reisenrad
Wheel
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SEE ALSO:
VIENNA COSTUMED ORCHESTRA - MOZART CONCERT
THE KAISERGRUFT EMPEROR'S TOMB
VIENNA’S HOUSE OF MUSIC - INTERACTIVE MUSEUM
VIENNA’S IMPERIAL GUN STORE - HATS & HUNTING
CURIOUS PUB RESTAURANTS OF VIENNA
AUSTRIA WINE TOURIUNG - VIENNA TO GRAZ
