Lainzer Tiergarten

The Lainzer Tiergarten is a 24.50 km² (6,054-acre)wildlife preserve in the southwest corner of Vienna, Austria, 80% of it being covered in woodland. It dates back to 1561, when Ferdinand I of Austria created it as a fenced-in hunting ground for his family to use. Since 1919, it has been open to the public. Its name consists of its location by the Lainz district of Vienna's 13th District, and Tiergarten, which means zoo (literally, "animal garden").

The Lainzer Tiergarten is located mostly in Vienna's 13th district, with a small adjacent portion lying in Laab im Walde, Lower Austria. The Wien River is located to its north, the Liesingbach to its south.

Emperor Ferdinand I created the Lainzer Tiergarten in 1561. He had wooden fence built to enclose an area that he could use as a private hunting preserve. In 1781, a stone wall replaced the wooden fence. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austrian government declared the grounds a public nature preserve, though between 1940 and 1955, the entire grounds were closed to the public. Until 1973 access to the preserve required the payment of an admission fee. Since then admission is free.

A large portion of the Lainzer Tiergarten was lost after World War I, when the Friedenstadt ("Peace City") neighborhood was constructed in its eastern portion. The old wall can still be seen in the Hörndlwald woods east of the Lainzer Tor.

Due to construction of the Westautobahn in the 1960s, a corner in the northwest of the preserve was also lost. This time there was compensation, however, as a portion of the Laaber Wald, adjacent to the southwest corner, was annexed.

Today the Lainzer Tiergarten is home to between 800 and 1,000 wild boar, 200 to 250 fallow deer, approximately 700 mouflons, and 80 to 100 red deer (elk).

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Wikipedia