Haus des Meeres

Haus des Meeres is an aquarium built inside a squat concrete tower in Esterhazypark, a structure put up in the nineteen forties and later given a new use. The collection climbs the building floor by floor: reef tanks and a shark basin with a walk-through tunnel low down, then freshwater, amphibians, reptiles and crocodiles, then a tropical house where birds and small monkeys move freely among the plants around visitors. A terrace and cafe on the roof look out over the rooftops of Mariahilf and toward the city centre. The layout is vertical rather than spacious, so a visit is a climb through tight floors rather than a stroll.

History

Vienna's first public seawater aquarium was opened by Gustav Jäger in 1860, made possible by the Semmering railway to the coast, and lost money until he gave it up four years later. The concrete tower that houses today's aquarium was built in ten months between October 1943 and July 1944 as a fire control flak tower, 47 metres tall; volunteers moved into the tower in November 1957 with only a floor and a half for their exhibits, beside the fire brigade on the ground floor, and floor by floor the aquarium took over the building. In 1991 Lawrence Weiner crowned it with a band of words, Smashed to Pieces .. In the Still of the Night, and after the lift of 1944 was retired in 1997 a renovation opened three new floors (Wikipedia, Haus des Meeres).

What you'll find

• The shark tank - the largest basin in the building, with a short walk-through tunnel underneath it.
• The tropical house - a warm planted hall where birds and small monkeys move freely around the walkways.
• The reptiles and crocodiles - a floor of snakes, lizards and crocodilians, one of the stronger parts of the collection.
• The roof terrace - an open cafe deck on top of the tower with a wide view over the district.

When to go

Open all year and an obvious wet-day option, which is exactly when everyone else has the same idea. Weekday mornings during term time are the calmest. Avoid Sunday afternoons and school holidays entirely if you can. Feeding times are posted at the entrance and are worth planning a route around.

Things to know

The building is cramped, and on busy days the stairs and narrow floors turn into a slow shuffle. Several tanks look small for the animals in them. Queues at holidays run out onto the street. The ticket is expensive for the floor area, and the roof terrace cafe is usually full when the weather is good.

Nearby

Mariahilfer Strasse and the Naschmarkt are both within a ten minute walk.

Key facts