The tower that can't be removed

What rises above the treetops here is an anti-aircraft tower, fifty-five metres tall, built in the final years of the war and never gone since.

 

Vienna got six of them, spread across the city in pairs, meant to shoot down aircraft while also sheltering thousands of people. They were built by prisoners of war, forced labourers and prisoners from concentration camps, with walls metres thick that were supposed to withstand anything that landed on them.

 

That last point turned out to be exactly the problem. Demolishing them costs more than leaving them standing, and the explosives it would take would bring the surrounding houses down too, so Vienna has decided to live with them. This tower was also damaged by a blast just after the war and has been closed off ever since.

 

So in the oldest public garden in the city, dedicated to all people, stands a structure from the very years when the residents of the surrounding district were being taken away.

 

Taking the path to the southeast, we pass the second tower, where this walk ends.