A hotel building of the post-war reconstruction at the start of Singerstraße, a few steps from St Stephen’s. The building itself is recent and unprotected; the site is not. Three plaques on its front recall the inn “Zum roten Apfel”, the Hungarian humanist Johannes Sambucus, and the singing school that Antonio Salieri opened here in 1817.
At a glance
Singerstraße 3 stands on the plot of the house “Zum roten Apfel”, next to the old house “Zum goldenen Becher” on the corner of Stock-im-Eisen-Platz. The house held an inn of the same name in the eighteenth century, and in 1881, according to the Wien Geschichte Wiki, the two houses were rebuilt together as the Royal Hotel. The hotel says that its building burned in the last days of the Second World War and that the Kremslehner family rebuilt it and reopened it on 20 May 1960; the City of Vienna’s building-period map confirms a post-war hotel building of the years 1946–1976. We have not found the name of the architect.
Key facts
- Where: Singerstraße 3, 1010 Vienna (Innere Stadt), Austria
- Built: after 1945; the City of Vienna’s building-period map gives 1946–1976 and classes the building as a hotel; reopened on 20 May 1960, according to the hotel
- Architect: not known to us
- Earlier buildings on the site: the house “Zum roten Apfel”, with its inn; from 1881 the Royal Hotel
- Plaques on the front: Leopold Dassanowsky and the inn “Zum roten Apfel” (1984); Johannes Sambucus (1984, relief by Stefan Kamenyeczky); Antonio Salieri and the singing school of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
- Protection: not on the list of protected monuments of the Federal Monuments Office; within the City of Vienna’s “Innere Stadt” protection zone
- Current use: Hotel Royal, run by the Kremslehner family, with the Ristorante Firenze on the ground floor
- Coordinates: 48.207884, 16.372323 · open in Google Maps
History
The house “Zum roten Apfel” stood between the old school building and Singerstraße, with a back way out to the Raubergässchen, and it gave its name to an inn. A plaque placed in 1984 by the Austria Mundi Society recalls Leopold Dassanowsky (1698–1761), who ran the privileged inn “Zum roten Apfel” with particular distinction; his father, Andrzej Taczanowski, had been a knight-commander in the army of the Polish king Jan Sobieski that relieved Vienna in 1683. The Wien Geschichte Wiki adds that in 1784 the innkeeper Josef Meriana is said to have introduced the first printed menus, the Kuchelzettel. The hotel’s own history goes further back: it says that the inn was first mentioned in 1566 as a pilgrims’ hostel and that it received an imperial privilege from Joseph I in 1708. We have not found those two dates in an independent source.
Two other plaques record the people of the house. One, with a portrait relief by Stefan Kamenyeczky, placed in 1984, states that the house where the Hungarian humanist Johannes Sambucus-Zsámboky (1531–1584) lived and died stood on this spot. The other states that in the house “Zum roten Apfel” Antonio Salieri opened the singing school of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde on 7 October 1817; it was placed by the Academy of Music and Performing Arts, which grew out of that school.
In 1881 the neighbouring house “Zum goldenen Becher”, on the corner of Stock-im-Eisen-Platz, partly collapsed and was demolished; according to the Wien Geschichte Wiki it and “Zum roten Apfel” were then rebuilt as the Royal Hotel of the Kremslehner brothers, and the new corner building was designed by Alexander Wielemans. The hotel’s own account dates the collapse to 1882 and says the Kremslehner family has run the house since 1931; the two sources do not agree. During the Nazi period, from 1938 to 1945, the Hotel Royal served as officers’ quarters for the Wehrmacht. The hotel says that the building burned down in the last days of the war in 1945 and that the family rebuilt it and reopened the Hotel Royal on 20 May 1960. The Ristorante Firenze opened on the ground floor in 1984, the year the Dassanowsky and Sambucus plaques were put up.
What you see
We have not found a free photograph of the whole front, so this section is limited to what published photographs of the plaques show. The Salieri plaque is a tall panel of pale veined stone with the inscription cut in capitals and gilded, set next to a facing of polished red granite. The Dassanowsky plaque is placed at the right-hand corner of the Ristorante Firenze. The building is otherwise described in our sources only as a hotel of the post-war years.
Practical information
- The building is a hotel with a restaurant; the interiors are for guests and diners.
- The plaques are on the street front and can be read from the pavement of Singerstraße at any time.
- The building has no heritage protection of its own; what makes it worth a visit is the history of its site.
Getting there
Singerstraße begins at Stock-im-Eisen-Platz, on the south side of Stephansplatz. Stephansplatz station (U1 and U3) is less than two minutes’ walk away.
Nearby
- St. Stephen’s Cathedral, less than 100 metres to the north-east.
- Zum König von Ungarn, another old inn behind the cathedral, about 220 metres to the east.
- Café Hawelka in the Dorotheergasse, about 220 metres to the west.
- Zacherlhaus by Jože Plečnik, about 230 metres to the north.
Do you know more?
On this page we have published what the Wien Geschichte Wiki, the plaques on the front and the City of Vienna’s building records tell us about this site. We have no photograph of the building we are free to publish, we could not find the architect of the post-war hotel or the year its construction began, and our sources disagree on when the Kremslehner family took over the hotel. If you know something — a name, a date, a document, an old photograph of the Royal Hotel before 1945 or of the rebuilding, a book that mentions it — or if you can send us a photograph of the building, 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
- Wien Geschichte Wiki, “Zum roten Apfel (1, Singerstraße)” (after Felix Czeike, Historisches Lexikon Wien): the house, its rebuilding with “Zum goldenen Becher” in 1881 as the Royal Hotel of the Kremslehner brothers, Josef Meriana and the first menus in 1784, the singing school.
- Wien Geschichte Wiki, “Zum goldenen Becher”: the partial collapse and demolition of 1881, the new building by Alexander Wielemans, “Bauer’s Hôtel Royal”.
- Wien Geschichte Wiki, “Dassanowsky-Gedenktafel”: text of the 1984 plaque, its position at the corner of the Ristorante Firenze, and the use of the Hotel Royal as Wehrmacht officers’ quarters in 1938–1945 (after R. M. Urrisk-Obertyński, Wien – 2000 Jahre Garnisonsstadt, vol. 3, 2012).
- Wien Geschichte Wiki, “Johannes-Sambucus-Zsamboky-Gedenktafel”: the 1984 plaque by Stefan Kamenyeczky and its inscription.
- Wikimedia Commons, “Gedenktafel für Antonio Salieri (Wien, Singerstraße 3)”: photographs of the plaque and its inscription.
- City of Vienna, Open Government Data: building-period map (1946–1976, hotel and guest house) and protection zones (“Innere Stadt”).
- Bundesdenkmalamt, list of protected monuments for Vienna, Innere Stadt, as published in the German Wikipedia Denkmalliste: no entry for Singerstraße 3.
- Hotel Royal, “Geschichte”, official website: the owner’s account of 1566, 1708, the collapse of 1882, the Kremslehner family since 1931, the fire of 1945, the reopening on 20 May 1960 and the Ristorante Firenze in 1984.
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: position, returned as Hotel Royal, 3, Singerstraße, Innere Stadt, Wien.
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