Does the 454-year-old salt mine on the Donaulände have to give way to a new parking garage?

“A garage building made of reinforced concrete” is to be built at a particularly sensitive location on the Donaulände below the Linz Castle – at least according to the announcement by real estate broker Engel + Völkers. It would be the fifth parking garage in a 500-meter radius. For the construction, however, the historic salt barn from 1567 would have to be demolished, for which there is no monument protection.

In addition to the planned escalator, it is the second major project around the Linz Schlossberg. Background: barrier-free access to the largest museum in the country. The first renderings show a five-storey parking garage with a green facade, which can be expected to be used more than just the visitors to the castle museum.

The problem with the possible garage project: the Obere Donaulände between the Römerberg Tunnel and the Nibelungen Bridge is already an absolute traffic hotspot, a parking garage would require another set of traffic lights there. There are also four large parking garages within a 500-meter radius:

OÖN underground car park: 514 parking spaces
Promenade underground car park: 488 spaces
Main square underground car park 385 spaces
Pfarrplatz underground car park: 247 parking spaces

For the construction of the garage, the historic salt barn from 1562 on the Danube would have to be demolished. The salt that was transported along the Linzer Steig to the Salzhof in Freistadt and on to Bohemia was once stored here. The facade to the Danube is supported by the former medieval city wall from the first half of the 13th century and 15th / 16th century. Century and still shows the remains of former keyhole slits.

The parking garage is just one of many development variants of the 2,800m2 total area, which Engel + Völkers says is being offered for 4.9 million euros: “Due to the dedication to the core area, many options are still open with regard to design and use. A new hotspot on the Danube in Linz could emerge here. “

Ideas competition instead of underground parking?
The outgoing infrastructure and traffic officer Markus Hein is also critical of the possible underground car park: “An ideas competition would have been more effective, after all, it is an entrance gate into the city. But it is obvious that something needs to be done here. ” It would be conceivable to lower the road over a short section in order to create a connection to the Danube with the ship piers and the old town. “In Düsseldorf this was solved in a similar way on the banks of the Rhine – the cars drive down below, there is a walking mile above.” The city could interfere here insofar as it might change the development plan, which would make the planned underground car park impossible, said Hein.

Cover picture: Engel + Völkers / Girkinger + Partner

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