Salztorbrücke: The Salt Gate and the Island
Why is it significant?
Stop halfway across the bridge and look along the water in both directions: concrete banks painted from end to end, cyclists racing on the lower path, and in summer people lying on the steps with a book as if this were a beach. It feels very modern. The name is not. Salztor means salt gate.
Key Facts
| Place | Salztorbrücke: The Salt Gate and the Island |
|---|---|
| Address | Salztorbrücke, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.21410, 16.37430 |
| Part of Walk | The Island Across the Canal: Vienna's Leopoldstadt, Augarten and Prater |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop halfway across the bridge and look along the water in both directions: concrete banks painted from end to end, cyclists racing on the lower path, and in summer people lying on the steps with a book as if this were a beach. It feels very modern. The name is not.
Salztor means salt gate. The old city walls once ran along this bank, and one of their gates opened here towards the river. Salt was the white gold of the Middle Ages, used to preserve meat and fish through the winter, and much of it came down the rivers from the salt mines in the mountains to the west. Boats tied up below the walls, and the salt merchants did very good business. The walls have gone, but the gate's name survived in the bridge.
The land on the far side was called the Unterer Werd, the lower island. For centuries it was a soggy, flood-prone place of meadows, fishermen and boatmen, outside the walls and outside the city's protection. Every spring the river could change its shape. Some streets over there still follow the curves of old river arms that disappeared long ago. And when the river froze in winter, ice could pile up and flood the whole island within hours, so its people learned to keep their boats close and their valuables upstairs.
Look at the walls below you. The Danube Canal has some of the largest legal graffiti areas in Vienna, and artists come from all over Europe to paint here. The rule is simple: whatever you paint will be covered by someone else, sometimes the very next day. Old Vienna keeps everything forever, in museums and archives. Down here, nothing lasts a week.
And on the far bank begins the story of a community that was twice expelled from this island. Cross the bridge and walk straight on into the streets of Leopoldstadt, towards the market square a few blocks ahead.