The Stephansplatz is a square at the geographical centre 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 ...

. It is named after its most prominent building, the Stephansdom, Vienna's cathedral and one of the tallest churches in the world. Before the 20th century, a row of houses separated Stephansplatz from Stock-im-Eisen-Platz, but since their destruction, the name Stephansplatz started to be used for the wider area covering both. To the west and south, respectively, run the exclusive shopping streets

Graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic conte ...

(literally "ditch") and

Kärntner Straße Kärntner Straße (''Carinthian Street'') is the most famous street in central Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code ...

("Kärnten" is the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

for

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...

). Opposite the Stephansdom is the

Haas-Haus The Haas House is a building in Vienna at the Stock-im-Eisen-Platz. Designed by the Austrian architect Hans Hollein, it is a building in the postmodernist style and was completed in 1990. The use of the Haas-Haus is divided between retail an ...

, a piece of striking

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...

by Hans Hollein. Although public opinion was originally skeptical about the combination of the mediaeval cathedral and the glass and steel building, it is now considered an example of how old and new architecture can mix harmoniously .

Stock im Eisen

The ''Stock-im-Eisen'' ("staff in iron") is located at the corner of Kärntner Straße and Graben in a niche on the corner of the Palais Equitable. It is a section of tree trunk into which hundreds of nails have been hammered since the Middle Ages, and which is ringed by an iron band closed by a large padlock. The earliest written mention of it dates to 1533 and it is the subject of legends about the Devil.

U-Bahn station

The U-Bahn station at Stephansplatz is one of the busiest in the city, and is the only junction between the U1 and U3 underground lines. It is also the nearest U-Bahn station to many of the tourist attractions in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

Virgilkapelle

In 1973, during excavation works for the U-Bahn station, a mediaeval chapel was discovered 12 metres under current ground level . It was built around 1250 as a ''capella subterranea'' in the Magdalenenkapelle (the outline of which is shown on the pavement of the Stephansplatz). It is possible that it was originally intended as a chapel for burials, but at least by the 14th century had become a crypt for a mercantile family.

In Popular Culture

The site was the scene of the assassination of Viktor Kedrin in the hugely popular BBC Show Killing Eve, he is murdered outside a sushi restaurant by the assassin Villanelle slicing his femoral artery.

References

External links