Gemeindebau in Alsergrund

Alsergrund, Vienna's 9th district and sandwiched more or less between the InnerStadt and Döbling, is home to many things, the Old General Hospital, Votivkirche, Sigmund Freud's house, the city's oldest Jewish cemetery, and a good many departments of the University of Vienna among them. It is also, to my dismay, home to some of the most uninteresting Kunst am Bau I've encountered on my Gemeindebau walks. 

The mosaics between window spaces is a recurring theme with the Gemeindebau I have seen across the city.

Near the parish church was this plaque to John Adam, a Prince of Liechtenstein.

The parish church.

A complementary pair of marketgoers.

At Thury-Hof I found pretty arcades and a "conceptualization of National Socialistic Art" that calls one to remember the expelled Jewish persons who resided in this community housing.

The Haus zum Blauen Einhorn indeed had a unicorn, though it was not blue.

Among Alsergrund's more noteworthy sights is Palais Liechtenstein, the "country residence" of the Princely Family of Liechtenstein, who rule the principality of Liechtenstein and maintain residences in Vienna. Every once in a while the garden palace is open for tours of the family's private art collection, but one can walk the grounds at any time. 

Following WWII, efforts were made to transport approximately 35.000 war-traumatized Austrian children to Switzerland for recreation and relaxation. The Palais Lichetenstein was used as a coordination point for the Swiss Red Cross to prepare children for travel. In 2005 many of the "Swiss Children," or "Östricherli," were on hand to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII with the plaque at the entrance to the grounds.

So while the Gemeindebau did not pique my interest, the district still held enough curiosities to make for a worthwhile walkabout.