DONAUINSEL

The 'Donauinsel' (Danube Island) is an island of 21.1 kilometres length which is only 70-210 metres broad, splitting the river Danube within the city area of Vienna, Austria.^[1]
To most visitors, the island is known as a recreational area with bars, restaurants and nightclubs, a wealth of sports opportunities from rollerblading, cycling and swimming to canoeing and one beach that in its beginning felt so exotic that it was soon nicknamed the "Copa Cagrana/Copa Kagrana" (which is a humoristic allusion to Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana: ''Kagran'' is the part of the 22nd District of Vienna next to that one beach). In the southern and northern parts of the island there are extensive (and free) nude beaches.
The Donauinselfest is an internationally well-known annual open air festival happening at the end of June, and Europe's biggest event of this kind.
The main purpose of the island however is to be part of Vienna's highly sophisticated flood protection system. As the mighty river Danube crosses the city (earlier: passed nearby), this had constantly been a concern for hundreds of years. First remarkable measures were taken 1870-1875: A central bed, 280 m, was dug out, and an innundation area of 450 m was created at the left shore of the river. In 1970, a new plan was conceived and soon realised: digging out a second bed for the river on former innundation area, and throwing up the dugout in the strip of land inbetween the former bed and what is now called the "New Danube". As an addendum, the thus created island should eventually be used for recreation. The plan is calculated for save protection from floods bringing up to 14,000 million m3 per second (which in Vienna's history was recorded once, in 1501; the heavy 2002 flood braught 10,000 million m3 per second).^[2]
The works were started in March 1972 ^[3] and finished in 1988.^[4]

Contents

References and other external links

References and other external links

1. Official datasheet (German)
2. Official data (German)
3. Official data (German)
4. "Zwischen 1870 und 1875 gab es die erste Donauregulierung" and "1988 [...] fertig gestellt." (from a test for immigrants applying for Austrian citizenship; official paper, in German)


★ Copa Cagrana at night (JPG, 22k)

★ Simple Interactive Vienna tourist map linked to a short English descriptions of Danube Island and other Vienna tourist spots.

★ Better Map of the island, by Vienna magistrate; it consists of 8 GIFs, c.100k each.

★ Danube Island Free Festival - Official information, English.

★ Map and Information