Josefsbrunnen, Protected water well in Innere Stadt, Austria.
Josefsbrunnen is a protected water well in Vienna's central district made of stone elements that continues to serve as a working public water source. It connects to the city's modern water system and remains accessible to anyone passing through the area.
The well was built in 1873 as part of Vienna's First Mountain Spring Pipeline project, which aimed to bring clean Alpine water to the growing city. This project addressed a critical need to ensure reliable water distribution across the urban areas.
The fountain is named after Saint Joseph and represents Vienna's long tradition of making clean water freely available to everyone in the city. This principle of public water access remains a visible part of daily life in the inner district today.
The well is freely accessible in the public street and offers fresh water directly from natural sources without any registration needed. Visitors can stop and drink whenever they pass, just as local residents do on a daily basis.
The water travels more than 95 kilometers from Alpine sources to Vienna and needs no artificial treatment because it is naturally filtered through karst rock formations. This makes the water from this fountain exceptionally pure and requires minimal processing.
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