Lobau#

Lobau, flood-plain area (2,160 hectares) in the 22nd district of Vienna (of which 1,261 hectares are wetland woods); since 1875, after completion of the regulation of the Danube, exclusively along the north bank of the Danube. The name derives from the Old High German word "Lo" (= dense wood). Originally the Lobau was a primeval forest bordered by the arms of the Danube. Today rare animals live in the partly unspoilt riverside area (heron, cormorant, otter, red deer, peewit, kite, and others). At the beginning of the 11th century the area belonged to the Bavarian monastery of Weihenstephan, which was soon handed over to the bishopric Freising, with whose bishops Emperor Maximilian I and his successors had a legal dispute that extended over centuries, because they claimed the forest as hunting grounds. In 1745 Maria Theresia gave the Lobau to "the poor of Vienna". It was in the Lobau that the battle of Aspern took place on May 21/22, 1809 (memorial stone at the site of Napoleon´s headquarters, entrenchment, powder magazine, French cemetery). In 1905 the Lobau became a protected area as an important part of the woodland and meadowland belt. Since 1918 the Upper Lobau has formed part of the municipality of Vienna, the Lower Lobau is owned by the Republic of Austria. In 1938 part of the natural landscape was destroyed by the construction of oil tanks, a petroleum refinery, an oil port and the southernmost part of the planned Donau-Oder-Kanal.

From the Marchfeld region the Lobau is separated by the Gross-Enzersdorfer Arm, a dead-water arm of the Danube, towards the river itself the Hubertusdamm cuts off a strip of the wetland plain which now forms part of the former inundation zone. In 1977 the Lobau was declared a "Biosphere Reserve" by UNESCO and in 1978 it was designated as a nature reserve by the government of the province of Vienna (since 1996 part of the Danube Wetlands national park). - In the centre of the nature reserve, the Lower Lobau, a ground-water works of the municipality of Vienna is located, in the Upper Lobau, natural bathing areas (naturist beaches) and recreation grounds. Part of the New Danube, which has a total length of 20 km and an average width of 200 m, was cut along the recreation area of the Lobau.

Literature#