A tall corner house in the short street named after the Papageno statue on the side gate of the Theater an der Wien. An older house on the site was due to be demolished in 1900, when a new building was applied for. The house is not a listed monument, and the city’s own survey of building ages gives it a date after 1945. What the records show, and what they leave open, is set out below.
At a glance
Papagenogasse runs for a single block between Millöckergasse and the Getreidemarkt, alongside the Theater an der Wien. It took its present name in 1876 from the stone figure of Papageno, the bird-catcher of Mozart’s Magic Flute, on the theatre’s Papageno Gate; before that it was Jägergasse. Number 6 stands on the corner with Millöckergasse, facing the gate. In 1900 the Viennese building press recorded an application to demolish the house then standing at Papagenogasse 6 and an application for a new building there. The hotel that occupies the house today, the Hotel Beethoven, dates the present building to 1902 and describes it as neo-Renaissance. The City of Vienna’s survey of building periods, by contrast, classes the building as post-1945. We have not been able to resolve that difference, and we say so rather than choose.
Key facts
- Where: Papagenogasse 6, corner of Millöckergasse, 1060 Vienna (Mariahilf, former suburb of Laimgrube), Austria
- Street name: Papagenogasse since 1876, after the Papageno statue on the Papageno Gate of the Theater an der Wien; formerly Jägergasse
- 1900: application to demolish the existing house (Franz Neumann) and application for a new house (L. Ruzic, building application no. 4370), both reported in the Viennese building press
- Date given by the hotel: 1902, neo-Renaissance style; not confirmed by a completion record we have seen
- City survey of building periods: “after 1945”, building type “rental house, corner house” (building code 99444)
- Architect: not named in the sources we have read
- Protection: none. Not in the list of protected monuments of Mariahilf
- Current use: Hotel Beethoven
- Coordinates: 48.200027, 16.364178 · open in Google Maps
History
The street belongs to the old suburb of Laimgrube, and its character comes from its neighbour: the Theater an der Wien, built in 1800–1801 to plans by Joseph Reymund the younger and Anton Jäger. The theatre’s side entrance on this street, the Papageno Gate, carries a sculpture recalling Emanuel Schikaneder, who wrote the libretto of The Magic Flute, shown in the costume of Papageno and playing the flute. In 1876 the street was renamed after it.
A house stood at Papagenogasse 6 in the nineteenth century; the address appears repeatedly in Viennese newspapers of the period. Its end is recorded in 1900. The Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung lists Franz Neumann among those who had applied for a demolition permit for “VI. Papagenogasse 6”. In the same year the weekly Der Bautechniker, in its table of building permits applied for, lists application no. 4370 by L. Ruzic for a new house (Hausbau) at VI., Papagenogasse 6, and the Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung reports the same application as made by Louis Ruzic through Dr. Robert Pattai. None of these notices names an architect, and we have not found the notice of completion.
The hotel states that the present building was constructed in 1902 in the neo-Renaissance style, which fits the applications of 1900. The City of Vienna’s survey of building periods, however, classes the building at this address as dating from after 1945, while describing its type as a rental corner house of the kind built from the Gründerzeit onwards. The survey’s simplified scale relies on visible features of each building, so a house heavily rebuilt after the Second World War may be classed by its later state. Whether that happened here, and when, we do not know. The ornamented upper floors seen in current photographs look much more like the years around 1900 than like post-war building, and the glazed ground floor and roof structure are clearly recent.
What you see
We have found no freely licensed photograph of the house. The description below is based on the hotel’s own photographs, which we cannot reproduce. The building is a narrow, wedge-shaped corner block where Papagenogasse and Millöckergasse meet at a sharp angle. Above the ground floor rise five storeys, painted pale grey and white. The corner is rounded and carries a column of single windows, each set under a curved hood moulding, the moulding growing heavier towards the upper floors; the side fronts are divided by shallow projecting bays with windows under small pediments and arched heads.
At street level the corner has been opened up with large panes of glass under a projecting canopy lettered “Hotel”, and a neon script sign reading “Beethoven” hangs above it. On top of the rounded corner sits a modern glazed structure. These are later additions; the plasterwork of the upper storeys is the part that speaks of the building’s age.
Practical information
- The building houses the Hotel Beethoven, whose floors are each dedicated to a Viennese theme according to the hotel; the interiors are for guests.
- The façades can be seen from Papagenogasse and Millöckergasse at any time. The street is quiet, and the Papageno Gate of the theatre is directly opposite.
- The building has no heritage protection; what is described here is its documented history, not a listed interior.
Getting there
The nearest underground station is Karlsplatz (lines U1, U2 and U4). From the Secession exit, walk past the Secession building to the Linke Wienzeile and turn right into Millöckergasse; Papagenogasse opens on the right after a short walk. Kettenbrückengasse (U4) is a little further along the Naschmarkt.
Nearby
- The Theater an der Wien and its Papageno Gate, directly opposite: the theatre of 1800–1801 where Beethoven’s Fidelio had its premiere, a protected monument.
- The Secession Building, Joseph Maria Olbrich’s exhibition hall under its dome of gilded laurel leaves, about 150 metres away.
- The Naschmarkt, Vienna’s long open-air market, a few steps away beyond the Secession.
- Otto Wagner’s Majolikahaus and the Medallion House on the Linke Wienzeile, about ten minutes’ walk along the market.
Do you know more?
On this page we have published what can be seen and what we were able to verify. We could not find who designed this house, the year it was finished, or why the city’s survey dates it after 1945: was it damaged in the war and rebuilt? If you know something — a name, a date, the architect, the family who owned it, an old photograph, a document, a book that mentions it — write to Sofia, who looks after these pages.
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Please start your message with the title of this page, so it reaches the right file. Every contribution is checked against independent sources before it goes on the page, and we always say where a piece of information came from.
Sources
- Der Bautechniker, XX. Jahrgang, Nr. 26, 1900, p. 596, “Angesuchte Baubewilligungen” (Austrian National Library, ANNO): application no. 4370, L. Ruzic, “Hausbau, VI., Papagenogasse 6”.
- Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung, 1900, Beilage Nr. 39, p. 305 (ANNO): Louis Ruzic, through Dr. Robert Pattai, for a new house at VI. Papagenogasse 6.
- Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung, 1900, Beilage Nr. 2, p. 10 (ANNO): demolition applied for by Franz Neumann for VI. Papagenogasse 6.
- Stadt Wien, Wien Kulturgut, “Bauperioden”, and the open-data layer of building periods on data.wien.gv.at: building code 99444 (Papagenogasse 6) classed “nach 1945”, type “Miethaus seit der Gründerzeit, Eckhaus”; explanation of the simplified scale based on visible features.
- Wien Geschichte Wiki, “Papagenogasse” and “Adresse: Papagenogasse 6”, City of Vienna: the naming of 1876 after the Papageno statue, the former name Jägergasse, and the address record.
- List of protected monuments in Vienna-Mariahilf (after the Federal Monuments Office): the Theater an der Wien with the Papageno Gate, 1800–1801 by Joseph Reymund the younger and Anton Jäger, is protected; Papagenogasse 6 is not listed.
- Hotel Beethoven, official site: the hotel’s account of a “historic building, constructed in 1902 in the Neorenaissance style”, its themed floors, and the directions from Karlsplatz; also the source of the photographs described above.
- Memorial plaque on the Theater an der Wien (Wikimedia Commons): Beethoven lived in the theatre in 1803 and 1804, and Fidelio had its first performance there.
- Wien Geschichte Wiki, “Papagenotor”: the sculpture recalling Schikaneder in the costume of Papageno.
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: position, returned as 6, Papagenogasse, Laimgrube, Mariahilf, Wien 1060.
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