Wasserbehälter Bisamberg, Water reservoir in Stammersdorf, Austria
The Bisamberg Water Reservoir is a drinking water storage facility on the eastern slope of the Bisamberg in Vienna's Stammersdorf district. Its wave-shaped facade of blue-dyed concrete faces Brünner Straße, and the forecourt holds enameled steel figures of fish, mermaids and a water sprite by Gottfried Kumpf. Inside, two chambers hold 60,000 cubic meters of water.
The Bisamberg reservoir was the first Vienna waterworks tank built on the far side of the Danube and the first on an openly accessible site. Its foundation stone was laid on 8 November 1993; the tank opened on 18 September 1996. Construction of the tank and its 11.6 km of pipes cost about 600 million schillings, of which the tank itself accounted for 228 million.
Gottfried Kumpf designed the facade: a wave-shaped wall of blue-dyed concrete facing Brünner Straße, with a forecourt decorated with enameled steel figures of fish, mermaids and a water sprite (Wassermann). Kumpf also placed his recurring figure, the Asoziale, among them. Because the reservoir is the only one of Vienna's water tanks left unfenced, visitors can walk right up to these sculptures.
The reservoir is viewable from outside, though the best vantage points are from the eastern slope of the mountain. Visitors should approach from the surrounding area to see both the structure and its decorative artistic elements clearly.
The facility supplies roughly 100,000 households across two districts of the city through a single pipeline connection. This straightforward engineering design choice resulted in major savings during construction.
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