Karlsplatz

Karlsplatz lies on the border between the Inner City and Wieden and took its present form between 1894 and 1900, when the Vienna River was regulated and roofed over. The previously open river that had cut through the area disappeared. The square is dominated by the Karlskirche, the masterwork of baroque architect Fischer von Erlach, whose triumphal columns quote Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. At the public transit station stand two of Otto Wagner's best-known Jugendstil pavilions from 1899, marbled in white and green with gilded ornaments; one houses a small Wagner museum today. The southern edge holds the Wien Museum, the Kuenstlerhaus, and the Musikverein with its Golden Hall, where the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year Concert is held. The square is one of Vienna's busiest and a major junction of U-Bahn lines U1, U2 and U4.