Eroicagasse

Vienna is comprised of 23 districts, each with their own character. Döbling is the name for the 19th District of Vienna, where we live.  Each district is subdivided into "villages" that are more neighborhood boundaries now than separate municipalities.

Around the corner and up the hill is the Heiligenstadtkirche and Pfarrplatz (Heiligenstadt Church and Parish Square) in the village of Heiligenstadt. Here Beethoven apparently wrote a famous letter to his brothers, complaining that Vienna, and in particular the water, was the cause of his deafness. I am constantly amazed at the number of tourists who make the pilgrimage here to see this.

He lived in this house adjacent to the square, and it is where he began working on the Ninth Symphony. Now you can dine in the pretty courtyard while perhaps drafting your own symphony.

It makes sense, then, that the street was named Eroicagasse after his Third Symphony, which he neither started nor finished while living in Heiligenstadt.

But perhaps there is more to the logic. These two houses on the street do seem to have the harmony of the Eroica Symphony First Movement.

And this one, the solemn theme of the Second Movement.

I certainly see the liveliness of the Third Movement in these flowers!

Vienna-yellow with a New England-white picket fence. Definitely a variation on a theme of the Fourth Movement.