Telegrafenzentrale, Vienna, Historic telegraph center in Innere Stadt, Vienna, Austria.
The K.K. Telegrafen Centrale at Börseplatz 1 is a 54-metre-long, 42-metre-wide building bordered by Hohenstaufengasse, Helferstorferstraße and Rockhgasse. Its vestibule is a three-aisled columned hall with stucco ceilings and arcades, and the front wing is crowned by a figure group seated on a globe, meant to symbolise telegraphy. The fourth floor holds four apparatus halls 7.3 metres high with large arched windows and Secessionist stucco work.
Built between 1870 and 1873 as the k.k. Telegrafen Centrale at Börseplatz 1, the building was enlarged by Eugen Fassbender with an additional storey in 1902–05. It housed a test station for wireless telephony and telegraphy and served the Austrian postal and telecommunications administration until 1996. After years of vacancy it was converted from 2017 into apartments and offices.
The building displays the typical five-story office design of late 19th-century Vienna with elegant street-facing facades and decorative stonework. Its proportions and ornamentation follow the architectural language that was standard for important administrative buildings in the city at that time.
The building occupies the block between Hohenstaufengasse, Helferstorferstraße and Rockhgasse, with the main front on Börseplatz. It is now a private residential and office building, so the vestibule, staircase and former apparatus halls are not open to visitors; the facade and the figure group on the globe can be seen from the street. The underground fresh-air channel runs from the garden at Börseplatz beneath Wipplingerstraße to the building.
The fourth floor held four apparatus halls 7.3 metres high, covering 1600 square metres; the largest measured 13 by 40 metres. Hundreds of staff worked there day and night. A 32-metre underground fresh-air duct ran from the garden at Börseplatz beneath Wipplingerstraße, passing canvas filters and a water-spray unit before reaching the heating chambers.
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