# Riesenrad

> This file is a plain-text rendition of a page on mytuur.com, generated from the same data as the HTML version.

Canonical page: https://mytuur.com/en/city/vienna/spot/riesenrad/

Content updated: 2026-06-22

Riesenrad stands at the entrance to Vienna’s Prater amusement park, with fifteen red gondolas suspended above the city. Its steel-cable spokes support a wheel about 64.75 metres high. Built in 1897 for Emperor Franz Joseph I’s Golden Jubilee, British engineers Harry Hitchins and Hubert Cecil Booth designed it. Lieutenant Walter Bassett directed construction as an English engineer and Royal Navy officer.

World War Two heavily damaged the wheel, and reconstruction restored fifteen gondolas instead of its original thirty. A demolition plan in 1916 failed because funding was unavailable. The mechanism drives the wheel with a cable around its outer edge, while tensioned steel cables form the visible spokes. At roughly 2.7 kilometres per hour, its slow rotation leaves time for views across Vienna and the Prater.

The landmark appears in The Third Man, The Living Daylights, and Before Sunrise, linking its silhouette with cinema. Wheelchair access and spacious cabins make the experience approachable, while the surrounding Prater offers further attractions. The 430-tonne structure turns slowly above one of Vienna’s most recognisable landscapes.

- City: [Vienna](https://mytuur.com/en/city/vienna/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_Riesenrad_68345855f44f54dc86992304_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wien_Riesenrad.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_Riesenrad_68345855f44f54dc86992304_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiener_Prater_Vienna_Austria_20476.JPG)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_Riesenrad_68345855f44f54dc86992304_2.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiener_Riesen_Rad_Ltd_1898.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_Riesenrad_68345855f44f54dc86992304_3.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LtWalterBassettofWatermouthCastleDevon.JPG)

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Vienna. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

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