19th-century urban development involved the development of sewerage.
Until then, the rivers were the main collectors, and the smaller
streams served as channels. The Ördögárok stream in Buda, and the Rákos
stream in Pest exuded unbearable stench before being eradicated. The
second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy partly buried, partly
forced underground the putrid channels which emanated putrid stench and
usually also served as garbage dumps. Few people know that at that time
the capital of the Monarchy also faced similar problems. There a firm
and drastic intervention was necessary because of the floods and
disease risk of the Wien river, which gave the name of the city.
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| The Wien river being covered, ca. 1895. |
The rapid improvement of the water quality after the installation of
sewerage confronted Vienna city planning with new challenges. The river
is no longer considered an enemy, and they slowly take the first step
to the figurative and literal rehabilitation of the Wien river. The
river, which not only gave the name of the city, but during its history
also defended it from the enemy.
The case of the chicken and the egg – Which Wien was before?
The name of Wien was first used in the Salzburg Yearbooks of 881, in
the form “ad Uueniam” (ad Weniam), but it is not clear whether it
refers to the city or to the river. In Lower Austria it is quite
frequent that a settlement along the Danube is named for the local
tributary river (e.g. Enns, Ybbs, Aggsbach etc.), thus historians and
etymologists think it likely that Vienna was named after the Wien river.
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| The Wien river as the natural line of defense of Vindobona |
The river had a special importance for the development and progression
of Vienna. It played a strategic role in the city’s southeast line of
defense. In ancient times the legionary camp of Vindobona was
surrounded on two sides by the Wien river and the Ottakring creek,
forming two natural ditches around the settlement. In Roman times, the
ramose side-branches of the Danube created a veritable archipelago on
the widening floodplain, and the Wien poured into one of these branches.
-Allen_torkolat.jpg) |
| The mouth of the Wien river (right), and the city walls of Vienna in
1686 |
Just like in Csallóköz – the Schüttinsel to the south of
Bratislava/Pozsony/Preßburg –, the main branch of the Danube in Vienna
was not suitable for navigation. The Donaukanal known today started to
take shape in the Middle Ages from a side branch of the Danube, where
the sailors could approach the imperial city, like they did on the
Moson branch of the Danube in the Hungarian section. The Wien poured
into the Danube at the easternmost bastion of the city, where above its
mouth it formed a section of the moat called Graben.
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| The river bed before regulation |
-Allen_torkolat.jpg)
Patrick Leigh Fermor started his journey in december of 1933, from the Netherlands to Constantinople on foot. He was only 19 years old then. The young englishman arrived to Hungary at Easter, 1935 when crossing the bridge near Esztergom over the Danube. Thanks to the sympathy of the pro-British Hungarian aristocracy he had spent the time of his life. He was wandering through Hungary and Transylvania from castles to mansions. He was warmly welcomed everywhere, and he was really surprised that he could have spoken to everyone in his own mother tounge. He wrote his journals during this trip in which he mentioned the life in the Buda castle as well as sleeping with nomad gypsies. He visited the cemetery of Segesvár (Sighișoara, Schäßburg) and watched the eagles soar above the Carpathian mountains. He did not know, but he described a condemned society which had less then ten more years before it completely disappeared. With all the rural beetle collecting aristocracy, just like in Agatha Christie's novels. Mr. Fermor tells also a tale of a long lost view of the Lower-Danube, which we present you on the Donauinseln blog. 
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