Sights in Wienerwald
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Thermalstrandbad
Because of the sulphur content in its healing waters, Baden bei Wien has a distinctive ‘poached egg’ smell in parts of town. All the more unusual, therefore, when an outdoor swimming pool used for recreation and fun has this ubiquitous ‘eggy’ scent. If you’ve got a finely tuned nose, the egg smell is very in your face at the Thermalstrandbad. With its dubious brownish stretch of sand backed by a functionalist building from 1926, the pool complex is a sulphurous Hades-meets-Majorca. Originally, the designers wanted to import sand from the Adriatic (not exactly known for sandy beaches, but anyway); in the end they settled for sand from Melk in the Danube Valley.
reviewed
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Stift Heiligenkreuz
About 20km from Mödling is Heiligenkreuz and the 12th-century Cistercian abbey Stift Heiligenkreuz. The chapter house is the final resting place of most of the Babenberg dynasty, which ruled Austria until 1246. The abbey museum contains 150 clay models by Giovanni Giuliani (1663–1744), a Venetian sculptor who also created the Trinity column in the courtyard. Note that tours in English are by request only.
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Rollett Museum
The Rollett Museum, southwest of the town centre, covers important aspects of the town’s history. The most unusual exhibit is the collection of skulls, busts and death masks amassed by the founder of phrenology, Josef Gall (1752–1828), who sparked the craze of inferring criminal characteristics from the shape of one’s cranium.
reviewed
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Beethovenhaus
Back in the town centre, one of the houses Beethoven stayed in has inevitably been turned into the Beethovenhaus with little to actually see; nearby, though, is the Dreifaltig-keitssäule, dating from 1714, dominating the Hauptplatz.
reviewed
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Carmelite Convent
The Carmelite convent can be visited, but it’s not really worth the effort; all you see is a chapel and a couple of rooms of mementos.
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