Vienna Gasometers
Four Victorian gas tanks turned vertical neighborhood — apartments above offices above shopping malls, all packed inside 1890s brick cylinders still wearing their original walls.
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Built 1896–1899 to store 90,000 cubic meters of town gas each, the four gasholder houses sat empty after Vienna switched to natural gas in the 1970s. In 2001, four architects — Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelblau, Manfred Wehdorn, and Wilhelm Holzbauer — each converted one cylinder into a self-contained urban slice, gut-renovating the interior while leaving the historic brick shell untouched.
What to look for
- The preserved 1890s brick exterior walls — the only original structure kept when the interiors were completely rebuilt
- Skybridges linking the shopping mall floors of all four gasometers to one another at ground level
- The four visibly different interiors: each architect took an independent design approach, so no two cylinders look the same inside
Located in Simmering, Vienna's 11th district; the Gasometers appeared in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights and have been open to the public since the grand opening on 30 October 2001.
Vienna Gasometers is one of 39 sights worth the detour in Vienna, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Vienna pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Vienna
- Schönbrunn PalaceHabsburg emperors were born here, ruled from here, and died here — 1,441 rooms of Baroque ambition spanning 300 years.
- St. Stephen's CathedralA cathedral consecrated in 1147 as crusaders prepared to march — and built on top of a Roman burial ground that nobody knew was there until 2000.
- BelvederePrince Eugene built this summer palace on Ottoman campaign winnings — it is now three art museums inside a World Heritage Baroque garden.
- Hofburg PalaceSeven centuries of Austrian rulers worked from this address — the current president still does.
- Vienna State OperaThe first major building on Vienna's Ring Road, and the house where Vienna Philharmonic musicians earn their seats.
- Ernst-Happel-StadionBuilt for workers' sport in 1931, this 50,865-seat bowl also served as a transit prison for over 1,000 Jewish deportees in 1939.