History of the campus
The transformation of the Old General Hospital (AAKH) into the University of Vienna campus at the end of the 20th century was not the first repurposing in the history of this area in the Alservorstadt district.
From a large poorhouse into a general hospital
Emperor Joseph II (1741–1790) converted the large poorhouse, which had existed since the 17th century, into a general hospital modeled on the Hôtel Dieu hospital in Paris. The inscription at the main entrance on Alserstraße bears witness to Joseph II's transformation: “Saluti et solatio aegrorum – Josephus II. Augustus Anno MDCCLXXXIV.”
The large hospital (today's Höfe 1–7) was built under the direction of the court physician and first director of the General Hospital, Joseph von Quarin (1733–1814), and according to plans by the court architect Joseph Gerl (1734–1798). It was opened on August 16, 1784.
The new hospital also included a maternity ward, a foundling hospital, and the insane asylum built in 1783 based on designs by Isidor Canevale (popularly known as the "Narrenturm", “Toll-Turm,” or “Kaiser Josephs Gugelhupf”; today it houses the Federal Pathological-Anatomical Museum).
The buildings in courtyards 8 and 9 are among the 19th-century extensions built under Emperor Franz I (1804–1835), as evidenced by the inscription above the portal in Garnisongasse: “Saluti et solatio aegrorum Franciscus I. MDCCCXXXIV.”
The General Hospital played an important role in research. International luminaries of the Vienna Medical School, from Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818–1865) to Theodor Billroth (1829–1894) and Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943), worked here.
From the General Hospital to the University of Vienna Campus
After plans for the new AKH in Michelbeuern were already underway, Mayor Franz Jonas announced at the university's 600th anniversary celebration that they were considering donating the nearby university grounds, which became legally possible thanks to the University Organization Act of 1975. On December 7, 1988, the notarial deed was finally signed by Mayor Helmut Zilk and Rector Wilhelm Holczabek.
The site was repurposed following a usability analysis in 1988 and a master plan in 1992. The authors of the implementation are the architects Hugo Potyka, Friedrich Kurrent, Johannes Zeininger, Sepp Frank, and Ernst M. Kopper, who joined forces to form ARGE Architekten Altes AKH. Construction began in 1993.
The complex was handed over to its users in 1998. In addition to university institutes and shops, the Old AKH also houses restaurants with extensive outdoor seating.
Gates of Remembrance
When the university campus was opened in 1998, the old and newly created gates were named after famous scientists and well-known personalities. The 23 newly named gates harked back to the then 633-year history of the University of Vienna and served to commemorate some of the most important personalities in Viennese science. In 2023/24, the gates were redesigned.
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Joseph II originally wanted to house the “lunatics” in the old Contumazhof (quarantine station during epidemics), but it proved to be too dilapidated and was demolished. Instead, this fortress-like round building was erected in 1784 as the only new building of the AKH.
Built on an artificially raised hill at the end of the main axis and the highest point of the complex, the “Narrenturm” architecturally connected the civilian AKH with the military garrison hospital. The plans of Joseph II, AKH director Josef Quarin (1733–1814) and architect Isidore Canevale (1730–1786) were implemented by the executive architect Josef Gerl (1734–1798) as a five-story circular building with a connecting wing in the inner courtyard, associatively closer to a prison than to a sanatorium.
The building no longer housed mass wards, but 139 individual cells with slit-like barred windows. Twenty-nine “madhouse cells” are lined up in seemingly endless rows on each floor. The iron-clad, barred wooden doors were not installed until some time after the “madhouse tower” opened. “Quiet lunatics” were allowed to move freely in the corridors in front of the cells, because the only way to the exit of the building was through the supervisors' rooms via the only staircase. With few staff, many patients could be guarded or confined in the ‘Narrenturm’ and at the same time be “protected” from the outside world and themselves.
The initially innovative idea behind the building's construction was quickly rendered obsolete during operation: each cell was centrally heated, but the four central stoves in the basement not only fed heated air into the cells, but also the heating exhaust gases. Each cell had its own toilet (“Abtritt”). The excrement was piped into the basement, collected, and then discharged directly into the Alserbach stream. Since the tower was built without a water connection, this led to a terrible stench. The “Abtritte” were filled in and chamber pots were introduced, which were emptied regularly.
The construction of the “Narrenturm” (fools' tower) represented an important improvement at the time, as the ‘mad’ were now regarded as sick, no longer as “possessed,” and were no longer put on display for amusement. However, medical care remained modest. It was not until 30 years after the patients moved in that a senior physician was appointed for the first time in 1817. Until then, the inmates were cared for medically by a few young doctors from the AKH, sometimes more, sometimes less. They used modest methods such as diets, occasional bloodletting, administration of laxatives, cold showers, ice water enemas, and hydrotherapy. The water for this had to be fetched in buckets from the wells in the AKH, mostly by the calm and therefore not confined patients who were housed on the lower floors of the tower.
These patients were also allowed to go for a walk for one hour a day under supervision. As early as 1796, a walled garden “only for the insane” was created around the tower, behind whose walls they were shielded from prying eyes, but also locked up. For “raging lunatics,” the individual cells were equipped with floor rings and iron chains for restraint and immobilization.
From the outset, the “calm, treatable, and clean patients” were housed in the nearby military hospital building, while the ‘Narrenturm’ had been used since 1803 primarily for the “violent and unclean” patients. In 1853, the new “k.k. Irren-Heil- und Pflege-Anstalt” (Imperial and Royal Mental Hospital and Nursing Home) was built on the ‘Bründlfelde’ as a replacement. However, despite all its shortcomings, patients continued to be housed in the “Narrenturm” until 1869. Then the building ceased to be used for its original purpose. From 1870 onwards, the tower was used only as a storage room, for workshops, and as staff apartments for hospital servants; from 1920 onwards, it was also used as an office for secular nurses and doctors.
In 1971, the old pathological-anatomical collection was moved to several cells in the tower, and since 1974, the Federal Museum has filled the tower completely. Since its donation by the AKH in 1988, the “Narrenturm” has belonged to the university, and since 2012, the collections have belonged to the Natural History Museum. The tower was completely renovated and reopened in 2020 with a new exhibition of the collection. In September 2021, a ceremony was held to mark the completion of the renovation of the Narrenturm and the presentation of the Pathological-Anatomical Collection (PaSiN).