| Towards the end of the 19th century, Vienna was bursting at the seams, and the suburbs beyond today’s Gürtel were on the verge of being incorporated into the city. The idea of a planned villa district was born. Within a few decades, a uniquely cohesive ensemble emerged, the preservation of which remains the core mission of the Vienna Cottage Association, founded in 1874. For financial and ecological reasons, the association chose an area on the slopes of the former Türkenschanze (Turkish entrenchment) with clean air from the Vienna Woods. The sandy clay soil was sufficiently deep for lush trees and gardens, as well as good drinking water. The checkerboard layout of the cottage complex followed English models. When the building land acquired and subdivided by the Cottage Association in the 18th district was completely developed, additional plots were purchased in 1884 be in what was then Ober-Döbling. Unlike the Währing Cottege district, the focus was on rental villas in the form of apartment buildings. Celebrity actors and novelist Heimito von Doderer were among the residents. The Austrian post-war chancellor and foreign secretary Leopold Figl (who signed the Austrian State Treaty at the Belvedere in 1955) lived and died at Peter-Jordan-Straße 62, in the immediate vicinity of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, where he had studied. The tour of the villa district concludes with a brief visit to the graves of prominent figures in the Döbling Cemetery. |
