Besides all the pretty palaces that Vienna has to offer, there are also six buildings that could be described best as modern castles. These are flak towers, that were build in World War II to defend Vienna from Allied bombing. Most of these six flak towers are not open for the public. The exception is one at Esterházypark, which is the home of the Haus des Meeres (House of the Sea).
When you are in Vienna at the Hofburg, follow the Eschenbachgasse and the Gumpendorfer Street and you will see the flak tower after a walk of 15 minutes.
Standing in front of it gives the impression that a medieval knight must have while standing outside of a castle. How to enter this invulnerable fortress?
But we are not in the medieval ages anymore - we are in the age of capitalism. And so the answer to this question is: money.
For around 19 Euro (22 US-Dollar) one can visit the Museum of the Sea and watch some fishes. If you are not so much into sea stuff, there is the possibility to climb the tower for 4 Euro (5 US-Dollar) on the side.
No, of course not this way. There are stairways on the other side.
After 175 stairs I had reached the platform in around 42 meter height.
There you can go ones around at the tower platform as I did.
The wire-netting fence is not part of the original tower. It was added a few years ago, because the tower was very affected by suicides.
The round "Micky Mouse-ears" of the flak tower are the places where in World War II the flak was standing. Btw, "Flak" is the short form of the German word "Flugabwehrkanone" (anti-aircraft cannon). So at these four round corners were back then the cannons, which looked something like this:
At the top of the building is now a restaurant, which was unfortunately closed at the day of my visit because of a private party. (So with some Steem you can rent the place and have a impressive view over Vienna.)
Most of the inside of the tower is modernised for the sea museum. There are only some stairways that can give an impression how it looked in the past.
Here's a look at the Café in the museum to give you an impression of the result of the modernization of the old tower. Any knightly feelings are gone if you sit here.
Then I left the stronghold that I had stormed by paying 4 Euro.
@capitalism