Leopoldstadt travel guide

This article is about a district of Vienna. Leopoldstadt is also the German name for the town Leopoldov in Slovakia.
Leopoldstadt ("Leopold-Town") is Vienna's second district. There are 90,914 inhabitants (census 2001) over 19.27 km². It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau (20th district), forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705). Due to its relatively high percentage of Jewish inhabitants (38.5 per cent in 1923, i.e. before the Holocaust), Leopoldstadt gained the nickname Mazzesinsel ("Matzoh Island").
Places of interest include the Wiener Prater (from Latin pratum "meadow"), former imperial hunting grounds to which the public was denied access until 1766. The area of the Prater closest to the city centre contains a large amusement park, known as the Volksprater ("People's Prater") or Wurstelprater (after the Harlequin-type figure of Hanswurst), and at its entrance there is the giant Ferris wheel ("Riesenrad") opened in 1897 which features prominently in the movie The Third Man and which has become one of Vienna's trademarks. There is also a miniature steam railway ("Liliputbahn") which, on its track through the woodland parallel to the Hauptallee, passes Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium. The Schweizerhaus ("Swiss Hut"), an establishment boasting a huge beer garden, sells the original Czech Budweiser draught beer. The owners claim that, back in the 1920s, the potato crisp was invented there. Nearby you can find the "Republic of Kugelmugel", a micronation proclaimed in 1984 that became a landmark of the area. (...) more....