Otto Wagner's Majolikahaus
Why is it significant?
Face the Linke Wienzeile and find the house whose entire front is blooming: a facade covered with glazed tiles painted with pink and red flowers and green tendrils climbing from floor to floor.
Key Facts
| Place | Otto Wagner's Majolikahaus |
|---|---|
| Address | Linke Wienzeile 40, 1060 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.19750, 16.35920 |
| Part of Walk | Melange, Torte and Schnitzel: Vienna's Coffee Houses and the Naschmarkt |
| Generated | Generated |
Face the Linke Wienzeile and find the house whose entire front is blooming: a facade covered with glazed tiles painted with pink and red flowers and green tendrils climbing from floor to floor. That is the Majolikahaus at number 40, and beside it, at number 38, a corner house glitters with golden medallions.
Both were designed by Otto Wagner and built in 1898 and 1899. The tiles are majolica, glazed ceramic, chosen not only for beauty but because they could be washed. In a city of coal smoke, a facade you could clean with water was a modern idea dressed as a garden. The golden decoration on the house next door was designed by Koloman Moser, one of the founders of the Vienna Secession.
Wagner dreamed big. He imagined the Wienzeile as a grand boulevard running from the city centre towards Schönbrunn, lined with buildings like these. The plan was never completed, but the stations of the city railway he designed still stand along the river, and these two houses show what the whole avenue might have looked like.
Notice that they are ordinary apartment buildings, with shops on the ground floor and flats above. Wagner believed that modern architecture had to serve modern life, the life of tenants, traffic, trams and markets, not only palaces and churches. It is fitting that his most joyful facades look out over a vegetable market. Notice too that there are almost no columns or carved stone garlands: colour and tile do all the work.
So here ends the walk, with the full Viennese menu behind you: spices and sandwiches, court cakes, plum buns, a schnitzel, a Melange on a silver tray, and a market built on a river. If you have room for one more coffee, Café Sperl is just behind you, or simply sit on a bench on the Wienzeile and watch the traders pack up. In Vienna, doing nothing slowly is a cultural heritage.