Hotel National, Protected historical building in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria

Hotel National is a five-storey corner building at Taborstraße 18 and Schmelzgasse 2 in Vienna's Leopoldstadt district, now used as a rental apartment house. Built in 1848, it is a little-known work by architects Ludwig Förster and Theophil Hansen, with figural ornament in the parapets and caryatids along the central axis. A semicircular courtyard lies at its centre.

Built in 1848 by architects Ludwig Förster and Theophil Hansen, the structure replaced an inn that had occupied the site since 1678. The new building embodied modern 19th-century standards and eventually gained protected heritage status.

The building's name recalls its former role as the Hotel National, one of Vienna's most luxurious addresses of its time, fitted with central heating and a semicircular courtyard. Look for the caryatids in the central axis and the figurative reliefs in the parapets, works of Ludwig Förster and Theophil Hansen. In summer 2017 a Yiddish street sign designed by Sebestyén Fiumei hung briefly on the house.

The building sits in a well-connected neighborhood with good public transport access and is within walking distance of other historic sites. The interior is not currently open to visitors, but the exterior architecture is clearly visible from the street.

The rooftop garden with its viewing terrace was among the house's main attractions, and the building also had central heating and a semicircular inner courtyard, making it one of the most luxurious structures of its time. In 2009 the former hotel was sold to the neighbouring hospital of the Barmherzige Brüder; rumours of a possible demolition put the ensemble-protected building in the headlines.