The tallest building of Vienna (50 metres higher than Millennium Tower) is at 4 Donauturmstrasse on the area of Donauparku ( a garden created in 1963-64). It is between Dunaube and Old Danaube, the centre of Vienna, Florisdorf and Donaustadt. This relatively new tourist attraction of Austrian capital is only 40 years old, but it has 252 metres of height. The tower was designed by prof. Hannes Lintl in 1962 . In 2001 the architect was awarded Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art. His projects are also television towers in Bagdad (destroyed during the war), in Montreal and Djakarta. The building of the Danaube Tower started on October 12 and continued for next 18 months. In 1964 Austrian president Adolf Schärf officially opened the tower.
The Donauturm or "Neue" ("New" - as it is called now) was built for the International Horticultural Show of Vienna. The originator of the project was Eberhard Födisch. The building belongs to the WFGT (The World Federation Of Great Towers) alongside Japanese Tokyo Tower, Chinese Oriental Pearl Tower and Canadian CN Tower. It is the 19th highest tower in the world.
The Dunaube Tower has three lookout levels that offer panoramic view of Vienna. The first observation deck is located at a height of 150 metres. The tourists get there in an elevator (It takes only 35 seconds to get to the top of the tower because the elevator races upwards at 22 kilometres per hour. It can take fourteen people. In 1964 it was the quickest lift in Europe.) or they can climb the stairs (According to different sources there are 775 or 779 steps). The new attraction of Dunabe Tower is bungee jumping but that can be done only in the summer. Ten and twenty metres above the first observation deck there are rotating restaurants (The floor in the restaurant rotates once every half an hour.), where guests having tasty meal can enjoy the view of Vienna . Tourists especially enjoy the view of setting sun over Wienerwald.
On the top of the tower there are also antennas of cellular phone networks and private VHF radio stations (like Radio Arabella Wien, Radio Orange, Sunshine Radio or Radio Stephansdom and a few other antennas of radio communication). Although the Danube Tower is similar to television towers it is not used to television broadcasting. (The tower in Kahlenberg is used to that). In the neighbourhood of the tower it is possible to find a lot of lodgings offering accommodation for tired guests of Vienna.
Autor: Miroslaw Nikolin - www.Hotels-Base.com
Source: www.isnare.com
