Location | Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria |
---|---|
Status | Operating |
Opened | 1766 |
Operating season | Year-round |
Attendance | ±6,6 million (2019) |
Area | 64 acres (26 ha) |
Attractions | |
Total | More than 200 |
Roller coasters | 14 |
Water rides | 3 |
Website | https://www.praterwien.com/en/home |
The Wurstelprater (Wurstel or Wurschtel being the Viennese name for Hanswurst) is an amusement park and section of the Wiener Prater (a park) in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria.
This institution dates back to the time of the Austrian Empire, when Emperor Joseph II made the Prater (which had been serving as Imperial hunting ground until then) open to the public in 1766, [1] which makes it the second-oldest amusement park in the world after Dyrehavsbakken in Copenhagen, Denmark. Soon the first snack bars, stalls and bowling alleys opened up on the grounds and the Wurstelprater was born.
The best-known attraction is the Wiener Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel. The park also features various rides, bumper cars, carousels, roller coasters, shooting galleries, ghost trains, a Madame Tussauds wax works cabinet and much more. Apart from the rides, the park features various famous traditional Viennese restaurants (such as the Schweizerhaus and the Walfisch) and souvenir shops.
The mascot for the park is Calafati, a 9 m-tall sculpture of a Chinese man, which stands near the Wiener Riesenrad.
The park is open from 10:00 am to 1:00 am daily in its season, which runs from 15 March to 31 October. [2] Some attractions, as well as the food stands and restaurants, are open throughout the year. There is no entrance fee to get into the park; instead, each attraction charges its own fee, the attractions being individual businesses mostly owned by local families.
During the advent season, a small Christmas Market [3] can be found on Riesenradplatz, right beside the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel at the Wurstelprater entrance. This Wintermarkt is open from mid-November till beginning of January and features traditional Christmas gifts as well as seasonal food and beverages.
The Wurstelprater is located in the Wiener Prater and can be conveniently reached by public transport (U1/U2 Praterstern) as well as by car (parking facilities available).
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects.
Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli, is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klampenborg, also in Denmark, and Wurstelprater in Vienna, Austria.
A Ferris wheel is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, they are kept upright, usually by gravity. Some of the largest modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on the outside of the rim, with electric motors to independently rotate each car to keep it upright. These cars are often referred to as capsules or pods.
Leopoldstadt is the 2nd municipal district of Vienna in Austria. As of 1 January 2016, there are 103,233 inhabitants over 19.27 km2 (7 sq mi). It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau, forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Due to its relatively high percentage of Jewish inhabitants before the Holocaust, Leopoldstadt gained the nickname Mazzesinsel. This context was a significant aspect for the district twinning with the New York City borough Brooklyn in 2007.
Dyrehavsbakken, commonly referred to as Bakken (lit. 'The Hill', originally the now a bit antiquated but still correctly or officially Dyrehavsbakken, Bakken to distinguish Bakken from Dyrehaven, the royal Deer Park. The amusement park Bakken is located in the southern part of the Deer Park, around 600 meters away through the forest from public transport connections to the center of Copenhagen (Klampenborg S-train Station which is served by regional trains as well. A huge parking area close to Bakken.
The Donauturm is a tower in Vienna, the tallest structure in Austria at 252 metres (827 ft), and is the 68th tallest tower in the world. Opening in April 1964, the tower is located near the north bank of the Danube River in the district of Donaustadt.
Knoebels Amusement Resort is a family-owned and operated amusement park, picnic grove, and campground in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1926, it is United States's largest free-admission park. The park has more than 60 rides including three wooden roller coasters, three steel roller coasters, a 1913 carousel, and 2 haunted house dark rides, among more.
Lakeside Amusement Park is a family-owned amusement park in Lakeside, Colorado, adjacent to Denver. Originally named White City, it was opened in 1908 as a popular amusement resort adjacent to Lake Rhoda by the Denver Tramway, making it a trolley park. The amusement park was soon sold to Denver brewer Adolph Zang. Eventually the name was changed to Lakeside Amusement Park, but the local populace kept referring to it by its original name for its glittering original display of over 100,000 lights. Today it is one of only thirteen trolley parks operating and one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States, and the oldest still running in Colorado. The park, comprising nearly half of the Town of Lakeside that it was responsible for creating in 1907, features the landmark Tower of Jewels.
The Wiener Riesenrad, or simply Riesenrad, is a 64.75-metre (212 ft) tall Ferris wheel at the entrance of the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Austria's capital Vienna. It is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions, and symbolises the district as well as the city for many people. Constructed in 1897, it was the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel from 1920 until 1985.
The Prater is a large public park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria. The Wurstelprater, an amusement park that is often simply called "Prater", lies in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel.
The Schweizerhaus is a Viennese restaurant, rich in tradition, that is inseparably linked with the Prater, a large public area and park in Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna, Austria's capital.
The Bohemian Prater is a small amusement park at the edge of Vienna, in Favoriten, Vienna's 10th district. It dates to the second half of the 19th century, and some of the rides are more than 100 years old. The name is derived from the larger Wiener (Viennese) Prater in Vienna's Leopoldstadt (2nd) district.
The Centreville Amusement Park is a children's amusement park located on Centre Island, part of the Toronto Islands, offshore of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park has been operated by the Beasley family since 1967, currently through Etobicoke-based William Beasley Enterprises Limited, on land leased from the City of Toronto government and is open daily during the summer. Beasley also operates the "Far Enough Farm" adjacent to the park.
The Prater Liliputbahn is a 381 mm gauge light railway in Vienna, Austria. Opened in 1928, and extended in 1933, the railway operates primarily as a tourist attraction, but also provides transport links around the wider area of the Prater park, the amusement park (Wurstelprater), and the sports stadium. Although a year-round service was provided for many years, it is now more common for the railway to close during the months of December, January, and February. Originally steam-operated, the railway now uses a mixture of steam and diesel motive power. The railway can be reached by bus, tram, or metro from central Vienna, followed by a short walk, but following the extension of tram line 1, there is now an almost direct interchange with the Vienna tram network at the railway's Rotunda Station.
The tourist attractions of Vienna concentrate in three distinct areas. The largest cluster, centred on Schönbrunn Palace, attracted around five million visitors in 2009, down from six million in 2008. Museums and exhibitions of Hofburg Palace accounted for nearly two million visitors in 2008, with a significant decline in 2009. The third, and the newest, cluster of modern art museums in Museumsquartier attracted less than one million visitors. Nearby duo of Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches museums, located halfway between Museumsquartier and Hofburg, also reported around one million visitors. The Landstraße district, which lies south-east of the old city, is home to art exhibitions at the Belvedere Palace and the KunstHausWien.
Vienna is a 1968 short film directed by Orson Welles. It was originally produced as part of his abandoned television special, Orson's Bag, which was made for CBS. However, in 1969, with the project close to completion, CBS withdrew their funding over Welles' long-running disputes with US authorities regarding his tax status. The film remained uncompleted. Despite its name, Vienna freely mixes footage shot in Vienna, Zagreb, and a Los Angeles studio. An 8-minute segment was restored by the Munich Film Museum in 1999.
Santa's Workshop is an amusement park that opened on June 16, 1956 in Cascade, Colorado, located on U.S. Route 24 just west of Colorado Springs at the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway, at the Northern end of Pikes Peak. Modeled after the Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York, the park features a charming North Pole village complete with a variety of shops selling toys, candy, and Christmas decorations. The village is also home to Santa's Workshop itself, where children can meet with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus year round. Much of the staff is dressed in Christmas themed attire, especially those at work in stores and admissions.
Attractie- & Vakantiepark Slagharen is an Amusement park and holiday resort in Slagharen, Netherlands. The park opened in 1963 and was originally named Ponypark Slagharen. The logo contains the English name Slagharen Themepark & Resort.
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, commonly referred to as Winter Wonderland, is a large annual Christmas event held in Hyde Park, London, from mid-November to early January. It features several festive markets, over 100 rides and attractions from across Europe, a Giant Wheel, numerous live shows, including a circus, ice show, and live music, as well as numerous bars and restaurants. In its first ten years, Winter Wonderland had 14 million visitors.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Vienna: