Wurstelprater

Wurstelprater

Wiener Riesenrad in the Wurstelprater amusement park
Location	Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria
Status	Operating
Opened	1766 (1766)
Operating season	Year-round
Attendance	±6,6 million (2019)
Area	64 acres (26 ha)
Attractions
Total	More than 200
Roller coasters	14
Water rides	3
Website	https://www.praterwien.com/en/home

Wurstelprater viewed from the Wiener Riesenrad

The Wurstelprater (Wurstel or Wurschtel being the Viennese name for Hanswurst) is an amusement park and section of the Wiener Prater (a park) in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria.

This institution dates back to the time of the Austrian Empire, when Emperor Joseph II made the Prater (which had been serving as Imperial hunting ground until then) open to the public in 1766, which makes it the second-oldest amusement park in the world after Dyrehavsbakken in Copenhagen, Denmark. Soon the first snack bars, stalls and bowling alleys opened up on the grounds and the Wurstelprater was born.

The best-known attraction is the Wiener Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel. The park also features various rides, bumper cars, carousels, roller coasters, shooting galleries, ghost trains, a Madame Tussauds wax works cabinet and much more. Apart from the rides, the park features various famous traditional Viennese restaurants (such as the Schweizerhaus and the Walfisch) and souvenir shops.

The mascot for the park is Calafati, a 9 m-tall sculpture of a Chinese man, which stands near the Wiener Riesenrad.

The park is open from 10:00 am to 1:00 am daily in its season, which runs from 15 March to 31 October. Some attractions, as well as the food stands and restaurants, are open throughout the year. There is no entrance fee to get into the park; instead, each attraction charges its own fee, the attractions being individual businesses mostly owned by local families.

During the advent season, a small Christmas Market can be found on Riesenradplatz, right beside the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel at the Wurstelprater entrance. This Wintermarkt is open from mid-November till beginning of January and features traditional Christmas gifts as well as seasonal food and beverages.

The Wurstelprater is located in the Wiener Prater and can be conveniently reached by public transport (U1/U2 Praterstern) as well as by car (parking facilities available).

Attractions

Each Wurstelprater attraction sits on a numbered sector of land and is run by independent operators. Both pieces of information are recorded in the entries below.

Roller Coasters

Name	Year Opened	Owner	Park Location	Description
Auto BergBahn	1948	Josef Popp	82	A wooden track for children.
Boomerang	1992	Dostal	69	A Vekoma Boomerang shuttle coaster.
Dizzy Mouse	1998	Liliputbahn im Prater	94b	A Reverchon spinning mouse coaster.
Gesengte Sau	2020	Dostal	104b	A Gerstlauer bobsled coaster with tight twists and 2,001 feet (610 m) of track.
Hochschaubahn	1950	Pichl Neue Wiener Hochschaubahn Kremser	113	A side friction wooden coaster.
Insider	2013	Koidl	101	A Maurer AG indoor spinning coaster with strobe effects. It was previously located at Tokyo Dome City from 2000 to 2011.
Maskerade	2015	Dallinger	111	A Gerstlauer indoor spinning coaster with an elevator lift and brief outdoor section.
Megablitz	1994	Neufeld	145	A Vekoma coaster using MK-700 track that seats riders inline.
Olympia Looping	Seasonal	Rudolf Barth	145	The world's largest traveling coaster, which in recent years has operated for the summer season at Prater before traveling to the annual Oktoberfest in Munich and Hyde Park Winter Wonderland in London.
Race	2014	Riedl	80d	An SBF Visa Group children's coaster with a race car train.
Roller Ball	2020	Kern & Waldmann	20	A Roller Ball from Ride Engineers Switzerland.
Volare	2004	Koidl	16	A Zamperla Volare flying coaster.
Wiener Looping	2024	Stefan Sittler-Koidl	34, 35, 143, 143a, 144, 144a	A Mack Rides BigDipper with three inversions and the first to cover multiple sections of the park.
Wilde Maus	1997	Dallinger	108a	A classic Maurer AG Wild mouse.
Zug des Manitu	2002	Christian Sittler	50a	A CAM Baby Kart powered coaster.

Gallery

• Wurstelprater
• 
  Wurstelprater view
• 
  A wolfman-esque figure that greets Prater visitors
• 
  A sculptured clown inviting visitors to one of the attractions

External links

• prater.at | Your Wurstelprater Guide – park information, rides, restaurants and events
• City of Vienna page on the Prater
• www.wiener-prater.at