1st May 1865: Opening of the Vienna Ringstrasse


On 20 December 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph I issues the following decree: “It is my wish that as soon as possible the inner city be expanded and adequate connections to the suburbs be built. My imperial capital and residence shall by this means also be modernized and brightened …”
Soon the planning and constructing of the Ringstrasse started. The “Ring” is a prestigious boulevard lined by public buildings, private palaces and blocks of flats with elaborate façades. This remarkably harmonious ensemble is four kilometres long and 57 metres broad and strictly executed in the style of “historicism”. Only in the last phase of construction, along the Stubenring, some buildings were carried out in the style known as “Jugendstil”.
In the presence of the Emperor, the Ringstrasse was solemnly inaugurated on 1st May 1865. In the following decades the Kärntnerring became the favourite meeting-place of the Viennese high society. People wanting “to see and be seen” would promenade from the State Opera to the Schwarzenbergplatz and back, which was known as the “Ringstrassenkorso”. All this was going on in front of today’s Kärntnerringhof. Simply the Best since 1865.