Buildings of the Vienna Secession

Up at 10 today and out in the cloudy city by 11! We bought travel cards that are valid on all public transportations, but walked down to our first destination; Karlsplatz!

Karlskirche 

Karlskirche at Karlsplatz is an impressive church built in baroque style and it has an interesting story. In 1713, one year after the great plague epidemic in Vienna, Charles VI pledged to build a church for Charles Borromeo. Borromeo was an archbishop and a patron saint against the plague. An architecture competition was announced in which Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach was the victor, and the building began three years later. The building is truly one of a kind; the dome and portico's architecture are from the ancient Greece and Rome while the port housings and colonnades have a more orient feeling. 

Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station

Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station is a former station of the Viennese Stadtbahn. The buildings above ground on Karlsplatz are a well-known example of Jugendstil architecture, designed by Otto Wagner and are included in the Vienna Secession. The Vienna Secession was founded by a group of rebel artists from the long-established fine art institution Vienna Künstlerhaus in 1897, they designed many different buildings (this is just very brief explanation!).

They are two identical buildings facing each other; one is a café and the other holds an exhibit. They are quite small, but oh so detailed! There was a grumpy lady at the desk in the exhibit, so we just looked at it from the outside.

The Secession Building

The Secession Building, or Wiener Secessionsgebäude in german, exhibition hall built in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich, also included in Vienna Secession. It's hard to document all the details of this building, I chose out a few of my favorite parts to share here!

There are two big bowls at each side of the stairs, I really like the turtles that they're balancing on.