!!!Prater

Prater (Latin: pratum = meadow), amusement park and extensive 
recreation ground (lost most of its wetland character after the 
regulation of the River Danube) in Vienna´s 2%%sup nd/% 
 district ( Leopoldstadt), between the River Danube and the 
Donaukanal (Danube Canal); first documented mention in 1403 (an 
earlier reference to "Prater" of 1162 is not to the area now 
known as the Prater). The Prater was originally owned by the Emperor 
(hunting ground from 1560 onwards, animal reserve, court festivities), 
but opened to the public by Emperor Joseph II in 1766.

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North of the Hauptallee (main boulevard, almost 5 km long, built in 
1537) from Praterstern traffic circus to the "Lusthaus" 
(summer house, built before 1566, current building by A. Canevale 
between 1781 and 1783) is the "Wurstelprater" entertainment 
area, named after the character  Hanswurst (officially called 
"Volksprater" since 1786); has numerous amusement arcades, 
show booths, shooting galleries, gaming machines, carousels, ghost 
trains and roller coasters, the  Giant Wheel and the Liliputbahn 
miniature train (to the Stadium) etc., as well as many restaurants. In 
earlier times even actors from the Burgtheater performed at the 
"Prater-Variete", a small theatre run by the restaurant 
owner and songwriter, Ferdinand Leicht and his brother Wilhelm  
Leicht. The Wurstelprater was completely destroyed by bombs and fire 
in 1945 and later on reconstructed on a smaller area. The  
Planetarium, with the Prater Museum, was also reconstructed; the 
museum goes back to a collection started by H.  Pemmer.

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By the Hauptallee, where the Vienna floral parade ("Wiener 
Blumenkorso") was held around 1900 and which has been closed for 
road traffic since 1963, were the Vivarium and the 
"Prater-Etablissements", which went down in musical history 
(performances of J. Strauss the Elder and the Younger, J. Lanner, 
F. Lehar, etc.); monument of C. M. Ziehrer (1960).

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The largest part of the Prater is made up of the "Green 
Prater", an extensive park. It also includes the exhibition 
grounds (replaced the  Rotunde), the trotting course (in  Krieau), the 
golf course, the Ernst-Happel Stadium, the Stadionbad public baths and 
a cycling track, sports grounds, recreation grounds and camping sites 
(Jesuitenwiese meadow etc.), the "Heustadlwasser" (old arm 
of the River Danube), "Constantinhuegel" hill, which was 
built up for the 1873 World Exhibition, allotment gardens and the 
nuclear research reactor of the Austrian universities (since 1962). 
Behind the Lusthaus there are the  Freudenau with racecourses, the 
wintering port on the River Danube, Maria Gruen pilgrimage chapel 
(built in 1924) and Waldandacht pilgrimage church. The Prater is 
separated from the bank of the River Danube by a narrow strip of 
warehouses, freight transport installations and industrial facilities.

!Literature
H. Pemmer and N. Lackner, Der Wiener Prater einst und 
jetzt, 1935; O. Wladika, Von J. Fuerst zu J. Jarno. Geschichte des 
Wiener Prater, doctoral thesis, Vienna 1961; H. Pemmer and N. Lackner, 
Der Prater, revised by G. Dueriegl and L. Sackmauer, 1974; F. Czeike, 
Leopoldstadt, Wiener Bezirkskulturfuehrer, 1980; K. Lohrmann and F. 
Opll, Regesten zur Fruehgeschichte von Wien, 1991; F. Czeike, 
Historisches Lexikon Wien, 5 vols., 1992-1997; N. Rubey and P. 
Schoenwald, Venedig in Wien, 1996; M. La Speranza, P.-Kaleidoskop, 
1997


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