The Hohe Warte is a hill in the 19th district of the city of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria (german: 19. Bezirk, Döbling, Doebling). It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populate ...

between Heiligenstadt and

Unterdöbling Unterdöbling (Central Bavarian: ''Untadöbling'') was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden. Geography The Katastralgemeinde Unterdöblin ...

. There is also a street with the same name. In the 19th century, a number of villas were built on the Hohe Warte because it offered good views of the surrounding areas. Today, the Hohe Warte is best known firstly as the site of the

Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik The Central Institution for Meteorology and Geodynamics (german: Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, ZAMG) is the national meteorological and geophysical service of Austria. It is a subordinate agency of the Federal Ministry of Educ ...

(Central Bureau for Meteorology and Geodynamics), which is also often referred to as the ''Hohe Warte'' because of its address, secondly for the former presidential villa of the Austrian Bundespräsident, and thirdly for the stadium Casino-Stadion Hohe Warte. In 1872, the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik relocated from

Wieden Wieden (; Central Bavarian: ''Wiedn'') is the 4th municipal district of Vienna, Austria (german: 4. Bezirk). It is near the centre of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but its borders were changed later. Wieden is a small region ...

to the Hohe Warte; its new home had been built by

Heinrich von Ferstel Freiherr Heinrich von Ferstel (7 July 1828 14 July 1883) was an Austrian architect and professor, who played a vital role in building late 19th-century Vienna. Life The son of Ignaz Ferstel (17961866), a bank clerk and later director of the ...

between 1870 and 1872. The institute is responsible ''inter alia'' for Austria’s daily weather reports. In 1957, the complex on the Hohe Warte was greatly expanded, and in 1967 and 1973 a

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

tower, a facility for filling

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries ...

s and a new office tower were added. This office tower today also houses a large library with a collection specialising in meteorology and geophysics. The Hohe Warte is also the site of a well-known sporting facility in the form of the Casino-Stadion Hohe Warte. This stadium is the home ground of the

First Vienna FC First Vienna FC is an Austrian association football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there. It is familiarly ...

, which has been crowned Austrian champion six times, the Austrian national rugby team and the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna, the Austrian and European champions in

American Football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

. When it was opened in 1921, the stadium was the largest and most modern football stadium in continental Europe. International matches such as between Austria and Italy in 1923 were watched by as many as 80,000 people on the largest open viewing area in Europe at the time. Since the stadium was renovated in 2005-2006, it can now seat 5500 fans. The City of Vienna now prohibits the use of the open viewing area. The sporting arena on the Hohe Warte also played host to

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

performances and

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

matches in the 1920s. The first open-air opera performance in Vienna’s history took place here in 1924 when Pietro Mascagni conducted the opera

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

. The audience was arranged on an “amphitheatre-like parquet”; 17,000 could sit and a further 8,000 stood to watch the performance. The stage was almost 50 metres wide and 35 metres deep and was filled by a cast including soloists, a 200-strong choir and 700 extras. In 1935, a second season of opera was put on, featuring performances of

, Pagliacci und

Cavalleria Rusticana ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play ...

. Live camels and elephants were used in performances that were watched by 18,000 seated and 14,000 standing audience members.Gunther Martin: Damals in Döbling..., 1993, S. 19 ff, To the north of the stadium, the Döblinger Bad provides both an open-air and an indoor swimming pool. The Hohe Warte can be reached with metro line 4 (the U4) and tram lines 37 and D. {{coord, 48, 14, 58, N, 16, 21, 28, E, region:AT_type:landmark, display=title

References

Döbling Streets in Vienna Hills of Vienna