Middle Ages and Modern Times

Traces suggest that new settlements in Vienna recommenced in the 9^th century. The nucleus of this newly developing city was the central part of the former legionary fortress of Vindobona, whose fortifications had remained largely intact. The original Roman street layout also continued to be used. Around 1200, a new and much higher city wall was built. This laid the foundation for Vienna’s development into an important medieval center, with St. Stephen’s Cathedral as its spiritual focus.

Although archaeologists had begun monitoring construction sites in central Vienna in the late 19^th century, medieval and more recent ruins and artifacts continued to be of little interest to them for decades. This changed in the 1970s, however, largely as a result of the construction of the underground railway in the heart of the city. The most important discoveries in the 20^th century included the subterranean Virgilkapelle, which is next to St. Stephen’s Cathedral and whose construction began in the 13^th century. The collection also expanded significantly in the mid-1990s following the excavations at Judenplatz that preceded the construction of the memorial for the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime in Austria (1938-45). This led to the unearthing of parts of the synagogue that, until its destruction in 1421, had been the focus of Vienna’s medieval Jewish community. The objects recovered during this excavation shed light on the everyday lives of the residents of the quarter while also enabling us to draw conclusions about the interior of the sacred building.

The archaeological measures that accompany every new building project in the city are constantly revealing new pieces of Vienna’s historical puzzle. The same applied to the reconstruction of the Wien Museum in 2019/2020, during which an examination of the layers of sediment from the past 200 years revealed, amongst other things, new insights into the environmental history of Vienna. Interdisciplinary research into the soil taken from the site found, for example, evidence of historical environmental "sins" and residue from the atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll in the 1950s. 

The collection of archaeological artifacts from the Middle Ages and modern times, which now contains around 50,000 objects, not only provides important information about Vienna’s cultural and environmental history, but also valuable dating methods for those investigating the city’s past.