Volksprater: Austria’s Ancient Amusement Park
As the oldest functioning amusement park in the world, Vienna’s Prater Park offers rides, local foods and Austria’s largest nightclub.
A view of the rides at Prater Amusement Park in Vienna. Marco Verch. CC BY 2.0.
Austria is known for its art, music and rolling hills, but few people are aware that it is also home to Prater Amusement Park or Volksprater, the oldest functioning theme park in the world. Located in the Leopoldstadt district at the city’s center, the park not only offers a wide range of modern theme park rides, but also retains a lot of traditional features from its early years. The park is most well-known for its giant ferris wheel constructed back in 1897, but other fan favorites include the narrow gauge railway system (the Liliputbahn), and the Prater Dome, Austria’s largest nightclub with moving walls and twelve different themed bars.
Opened to the public in 1766, the amusement park has been a site for entertainment of all kinds for generations. Small kiosks that housed attractions ranging from gambling games and showmen to bars and food stalls brought aristocratic hunting parties to the fairgrounds, leading to its successful expansion into the 1900s. Unfortunately, the “Old Prater” was destroyed during the Second World War, along with many of its original rides, including the famous ferris wheel. While the ride was quickly rebuilt, many other historical items were salvaged from the original park and can still be seen today at the Prater Museum.
The Prater Museum houses many artifacts that remained after the park was largely destroyed during World War II. Wien Museum. CC BY-NC 2.0.
Aside from the rides, Prater is a popular destination among culinary travelers because of its wide variety of locally inspired cuisine. With over 60 restaurants and food stalls on offer, visitors can help themselves to everything from Hungarian langos (fried bread) to Austrian schnitzel. Many of these restaurants also have their own outdoor gardens where visitors can enjoy local brews with traditional Viennese dishes, like the famous Schweizerhaus (Swiss House) which has been serving guests in their 300 person garden since 2003. Another highlight is the Rollercoaster Restaurant in which guests receive their food via mini roller coasters and have their drinks mixed by robot bartenders. Alternatively, those looking to have a more historical dining experience can visit the Lusthaus, a restaurant housed within an imperial hunting pavilion that prides itself on recreating old recipes with fresh seasonal ingredients.
The Rollercoaster Restaurant carries the amusement park theme into the dining room. CK Travels. CC BY-NC 2.0.
One of Prater’s more curious attractions is the Republic of Kugelmugel (“spherical hill”), a ball-shaped building constructed in 1971 by an artist and his son in the Lower Austrian town of Katzelsdorf. When authorities told him that spherical buildings were against local regulations, the artist formally declared Kugelmugel as its own federal state, founding the Republic in 1976, even producing a unique currency and stamps. Despite the artist being jailed for 10 weeks, a few years later as a result of the legal conflict, the Austrian culture minister at the time suggested that the structure be relocated to Prater Park. It remains there surrounded by a barbed wire fence to this day, accessible to the public a few times a year as a gallery space.
The Republic of Kugelmugel has been converted into an exhibition space. Variegator. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The fairgrounds of Prater Park have witnessed so much history and have survived so much conflict. To this day, it continues to entertain people from across the country and the world who want to experience a small slice of Austrian tradition in a particularly unique and family-friendly way.
Tanaya is an undergraduate student pursuing a major in Public Health at the University of Chicago. She's lived in Asia, Europe and North America and wants to share her love of travel and exploring new cultures through her writing.