page_title: Wien Nordwestbahnhof
section_title: Main Reception Building
hierarchical_section_title: Wien Nordwestbahnhof / Main Reception Building
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Nordwestbahnhof in der Brigittenau, dem XX. Gemeindebezirk von Wien / Österreich / Europäische Union. Nordwestbahnhof, die Unterfahrt, eine elegante großräumige halbrunde Vorhalle auf der Abfahrtsseite mit Städtestatuen an der Nordwestbahnstraße. Auf dieser waren allegorischen Figuren für die Städte angebracht, die durch die Nordwestbahn näher an wie gerückt sind. Das waren Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, Berlin, Hamburg und Bremen. Weiters gab es vier Kindergruppen mit den Wappen von Niederösterreich, Böhmen, Wien und Prag. Gestaltet waren die Figuren aus St. Margarethener Kalksandstein vom Bildhauer Franz Melnitzky. English: The Northwest Railway Station in Brigittenau, the XX. district of Vienna / Austria / EU. View around 1873.
context_page_description: Wien Nordwestbahnhof is a goods station in transformation to a city development area in Brigittenau district of Vienna, Austria / EU. Passenger transport already ended in 1959. It serves as the southern terminus of the Austrian Northwestern Railway. The northwestern terminus of the line was Prague Těšnov station till 1972. Freight transport is in the phase of termination. By 2025, a new district will be built on the site. An interim use phase will begin in 2018.
context_section_description: Stuttgart professor of architecture Wilhelm Sophonias Bäumer was commissioned by the Northwest Railway Construction Department to build the passenger station, after he had been invited to submit a draft in 1869. The specification was a station with five tracks, which can be extended if required. It was not yet clear how the northwest railway would develop. Construction of the hall began in January 1870,  with Bäumer being supported in the construction phase until 1873 by Theodor Reuter as site manager, who at that time was chief engineer in the central office for building construction of the Northwest Railway. Bäumer, who moved his residence to Vienna for the project, also developed large residential buildings in the vicinity (Heinestraße 41 / Praterstern 1 / Kleine Stadtgutgasse 12 and 14) as well as some villas in the surrounding area of Vienna and Carinthia during the construction supervision for the construction of the railway station.
  The Nordwestbahnhof, the main work of Bäumer, was stylistically inspired by the shapes of Italian Renaissance palaces. In this project, he was able to consistently implement his stylistic ideas in both exterior and interior design. The imposing, monumental and highly regarded building was reminiscent of older station buildings in Paris. The main façade was structured by Risalite. The central main entrance was accentuated by arcades, a large semicircular window and a gable roofing reminiscent of a city gate. On the departure side at the Nordwestbahnstraße there was an elegant spacious semicircular vestibule. On this allegorical figures for the cities were placed, which have moved by the northwest runway closer to how. These were Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. There were also four groups of children with the coats of arms of Lower Austria, Bohemia, Vienna and Prague. The figures were made of St. Margarethen sandy limestone by the sculptor Franz Melnitzky.
  The vaulted ceiling was designed with shields of various allegories and the names of experts from the painter Pietro Isella from Morcote. The building was very elegantly furnished in terms of interior design and planned down to the last detail by Bäumer. There was plenty of cassetted ceilings, rich wall paintings, wallpapers and pilasters as well as exquisite lighting fixtures. The painter Hermann Burghart designed the waiting room of the first class, which cities and views of the Nordwest-Bahn were concerned. The sculptors Franz Schönthaler and Rudolf Winder worked in the court salon. The station was also the logical place of arrival for the German nobility in Vienna. For the normal people there were waiting rooms II. and III. Great.
  The estimated construction costs were 1½-2 million Austro-Hungarian gulden (converted is about 13 to 17 million €). In fact, the costs amounted to 2.3 million including financing, despite an extremely short construction period of around 17 months. The work was complicated by the marshy terrain on which up to four metres of earth had to be piled up. The ground was transported by a special field train over the Danube canal from Heiligenstadt.
  On 1 June 1872, the railway station with a 360 tonne iron roof construction was opened in an unfinished state when the section Vienna (Northwestbahnhof)-Jedlersee was opened for the transport of passengers, luggage and express goods by public transport. Long-distance transport with express trains to Dresden and Berlin started. The trip to Berlin lasted 19 hours (today 10 hours), the price for the second class was 15 Thaler and 26 Groschen (approx. 75 €). The completion was just in time for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair.
  The main reception building at the corner of Nordwestbahnstraße and Taborstraße was served by two tram lines. Today's Line 2 (formerly N) served as a transit line connecting the city centre through Taborstrasse. The tangential line Line 5 connects the Nordwestbahnhof (northwest station) with Nordbahnhof, Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof and Westbahnhof (west station).
  In the period up to 1914, the freight station was extended several times by 
caption: The striking downhill side with statues of the cities of the Northwest Railway
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