Linienwall

The Linienwall was an outer line of fortifications for the city of Vienna, Austria, which lay between the city's suburbs and outlying villages. Constructed in 1704, it was razed in 1894 to make way for the Vienna Beltway.

The construction of the Linienwall was begun by order of Emperor Leopold I in 1704 to protect against attacks by the Turks and the Kuruc (a group of anti-Habsburg rebels). It was part of a defensive line that followed the Austro-Hungarian border as delineated by the Danube, March, and Leitha rivers as well as by Lake Neusiedl.

All of the residents of Vienna and its suburbs between the age of 18 and 60 years old were required to work (or provide a replacement worker) on the fortifications, which consisted of a zigzagging, palisade-reinforced, earthen rampart, four metres high by four metres wide, and a three-metre-deep ditch. Construction was completed in only four months. In 1738, the earthworks were reinforced with a layer of bricks.

The fortifications encircled the suburbs from the Danube Canal at Sankt Marx (today Vienna’s 3rd District) to Lichtental (part of the 9th District), a distance of 13.5 km. It thus separated physically the Vorstädte or suburbs (today’s 3rd through 9th districts, incorporated into Vienna in 1850) from the Vororte or outlying places (today’s 10th through 19th districts, incorporated 1892). The most important arterial roads entered the city via drawbridges and gates; each of these locations additionally included a custom house where a toll, the Liniengeld was charged.

On June 11, 1704 the Linienwall helped a group of 2,600 Viennese residents along with 150 students repel an attack by the Kuruc.

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