The (; 'Vienna Giant

erris Erris is a barony in northwestern County Mayo in Ireland consisting of over , much of which is mountainous blanket bog. It has extensive sea coasts along its west and north boundaries. The main towns are Belmullet and Bangor Erris. The name ...

Wheel'), or simply Riesenrad, is a tall

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

at the entrance of the

Prater 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. Name The ...

amusement park in

Leopoldstadt Leopoldstadt (; bar, Leopoidstod, "Leopold-Town") is the 2nd municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna (german: 2. Bezirk) in Austria. there are 103,233 inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Bri ...

, the 2nd district of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

's capital

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. It is one of Vienna's most popular

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

s, 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.

History

The Wiener Riesenrad was designed by the British engineers Harry Hitchins and Hubert Cecil Booth and constructed in 1897 by the English engineer Lieutenant Walter Bassett Bassett (1864-1907),

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

, son of

Charles Bassett Charles Arthur Bassett II (December 30, 1931 – February 28, 1966), (Major, USAF), was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech ...

(1834-1908), MP, of

Watermouth Castle Watermouth Castle is a building in Watermouth, near Ilfracombe, North Devon, England, designed by George Wightwick as a residence for the Bassett family in the mid-19th century and is not a true castle but a country house built to resemble one. ...

, Devon. Its purpose was to celebrate the

Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু� ...

of Emperor Franz Josef I, and it was one of the earliest

s ever built. Bassett's Ferris wheel manufacturing business was not a commercial success, and he died in 1907 almost bankrupt. A permit for its demolition was issued in 1916, but because of a lack of funds with which to carry out the destruction, it survived. It was built with 30

gondola The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, ...

s, but was severely damaged in World War II and when it was rebuilt only 15 gondolas were replaced. The wheel is driven by a circumferential cable which leaves the wheel and passes through the drive mechanism under the base, and its spokes are steel cables, in tension.

Height

When the tall Wiener Riesenrad was constructed in 1897, both the original

Ferris Wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

in the US (constructed 1893, demolished 1906) and the

Great Wheel The Great Wheel, also known as the Gigantic Wheel, or Graydon Wheel, was built for the Empire of India Exhibition at Earls Court, London, in the United Kingdom. Construction began in March 1894 at the works of Maudslay, Sons and Field in Greenwi ...

in England (constructed 1895, demolished 1907) were taller. The

Grande Roue de Paris The Grande Roue de Paris was a tall Ferris wheel built in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle world exhibition at Paris. Financing the "Grande Roue de Paris" happened by the creation of the "Paris Gigantic Wheel and Varieties Company" and s ...

, constructed in 1900, was taller still. However, when the Grande Roue de Paris was demolished in 1920, the Riesenrad became the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel, and it remained so for the next 65 years, until the construction of the

Technostar Technocosmos, later renamed Technostar, was an tall giant Ferris wheel that was built for the Expo '85 World Fair in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. It carried almost 3 million passengers during the exposition. Technocosmos had an overall height of , a ...

in Japan in 1985.

In popular culture

* The Riesenrad appeared in the post-World War II

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...

The Third Man ''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten ...

'' (1949) * The wheel is featured in the 1973 spy thriller ''Scorpio'' (1973) * The 1987

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

film, ''

The Living Daylights ''The Living Daylights'' is a 1987 spy film, the fifteenth entry in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film's ...

'' features scenes throughout the Prater, around the wheel, and a lengthy romantic scene on the wheel. * The wheel appears in the novel ''

The Star of Kazan ''The Star of Kazan'' (2004) is a novel by Eva Ibbotson. It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Setting The story takes place over a year in the Austro-Hungarian and German empir ...

'' by

Eva Ibbotson Eva Maria Charlotte Michelle Ibbotson (née Wiesner; born 21 January 1925 – 20 October 2010) was a British novelist born in Austria to a Jewish family who fled the Nazis. She is known for her children's literature. Some of her novels for adul ...

* The wheel appears in

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer (; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (; ), was a German-French film director who worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made near ...

' ''

Letter from an Unknown Woman ''Letter from an Unknown Woman'' (german: Brief einer Unbekannten) is a novella by Stefan Zweig. Published in 1922, it tells the story of an author who, while reading a letter written by a woman he does not remember, gets glimpses into her life ...

'' (1948). * Scenes in

Richard Linklater Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies ' ...

's ''

Before Sunrise ''Before Sunrise'' is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The first installment in the ''Before'' trilogy, it follows Jesse ( Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) as they meet ...

'' (1995) were filmed around the Prater and on the wheel. * The wheel appears in ''The Glass Room'' by Simon Mawer. * The Riesenrad appears in the film '' Woman in Gold'' (2015), about the repatriation of a Klimt portrait stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish Viennese family. *The wheel appears in

Kommissar Rex ''Inspector Rex'' (German: ''Kommissar Rex''; Italian: ''Il commissario Rex'') is an Austrian-Italian police procedural comedy-drama television series created by Peter Hajek and Peter Moser. Originally an Austrian series aired from 1994 to 2004 on ...

the Austrian television series *Winter City in Burnout 3: Takedown is based on Vienna and includes the Riesenrad. *The wheel is featured in the US Hallmark Channel movie Christmas in Vienna. *In the second season of the NBC TV Show: Grimm, Episode 21, "the Walking Dead" the wheel is in the background of one scene. *The wheel appears in episode 1 of the TV series '' Vienna Blood'' (2019) The Last Seance

References

External links

* {{Coord, 48.2166505, N, 16.3959494, E, display=title Ferris wheels Amusement rides introduced in 1897 Buildings and structures in Leopoldstadt Tourist attractions in Vienna 1897 establishments in Austria