Mölker Bastei & Beethoven's Pasqualatihaus
Why is it significant?
Climb the few steps onto the Mölker Bastei, a raised terrace of old houses above the street, and you are standing on one of the very few surviving pieces of the fortifications the Ring replaced.
Key Facts
| Place | Mölker Bastei & Beethoven's Pasqualatihaus |
|---|---|
| Address | Mölker Bastei 8, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.21240, 16.36230 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna's Ringstrasse: The Grand Boulevard That Replaced the City Walls |
| Generated | Generated |
Climb the few steps onto the Mölker Bastei, a raised terrace of old houses above the street, and you are standing on one of the very few surviving pieces of the fortifications the Ring replaced. Below you the traffic flows where the moat and glacis once were; up here the lane is quiet, and one tall house carries a plaque for Beethoven.
The bastion takes its name from the Melkerhof, the town house of the great Benedictine abbey of Melk on the Danube, which still stands just behind you. When the demolition crews tore down the walls from 1858 onwards, this short stretch survived with its houses on top. It gives you the scale of what was lost: the defences were not a thin wall but a massive belt of earth and masonry several storeys high.
Beethoven lived in the house at number 8, which belonged to Baron Pasqualati, on and off between 1804 and 1815, on the fourth floor. That was remarkable loyalty for a man who moved dozens of times in Vienna, quarrelling with landlords and neighbours. Here he worked on his opera Fidelio and on parts of several symphonies, the Fifth among them. The story goes that his landlord kept the rooms free for him even when he had moved out.
Why did he love it? The view. From the upper windows, before the Ringstrasse buildings rose, he could look out over the open glacis to the suburbs and the hills of the Vienna Woods beyond. The apartment is now a small museum, and climbing the stairs to it tells you something about the half-deaf, impatient genius who climbed them every day.
Look across the Ring and you can see what replaced Beethoven's view: university, theatre, apartment blocks. Now come down from the bastion and follow the Ring north-east along the Schottenring, to a red palace that was built for money.