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Taking either of the two alleyways that lead north from Schulhof brings you to Judenplatz , one of the prettiest little squares in Vienna, now totally dominated by a bleak concrete mausoleum designed by British sculptor Rachel Whiteread as a Holocaust Memorial , and unveiled in 2000. Smothered in row upon row of concrete casts of books like an inside-out library, the bunker-like memorial deliberately jars with its surroundings; a chilling A to Z of Nazi death camps is inscribed into its low plinth. Ironically, Judenplatz already has a much older memorial commemorating the pogrom of 1421, and clearly visible on the oldest house on the square, Zum grossen Jordan (The Great Jordan), at no. 2. However, in this case, the inscription, beside a sixteenth-century relief of the Baptism of Christ, celebrates the slaughter, when the Jews were driven out of Vienna. The lucky ones fled to Hungary, the rest were burnt at the stake, or - to avoid that fate - killed by the chief rabbi, who then committed suicide. Judenplatz was originally the site of the city's medieval Jewish ghetto, dating as far back as the twelfth century, and during the building of the Holocaust memorial, excavations revealed the smoke-blackened remains of the ghetto's chief synagogue, which was burnt to the ground in 1421. The foundations, and a few modest finds, can now be viewed in the Museum Judenplatz (Mon-Thurs & Sun 10am-6pm, Fri 10am-2pm; oS42/?3.00), whose entrance is at no. 8. In addition, there's a short video with an English audio guide, and an interactive multimedia exhibition, both on medieval Jewish life in Vienna. One block north of Judenplatz, on the other side of busy Wipplingerstrasse, lies the Altes Rathaus , a dour-looking Baroque palace that served as the city's town hall until 1885. The main courtyard is undistinguished but for Donner's wonderful Andromeda Brunnen from 1741, which depicts the Greek myth in lead relief. The reason to come here, though, is to visit the highly informative Austrian Resistance Museum (Mon, Wed & Thurs 9am-5pm; free), which has a permanent exhibition on the Austrian anti-Fascist resistance, with labelling in German and English throughout. The bulk of the displays cover resistance to the Nazi regime, but there's also a brief summary of the political upheavals of the interwar republic, including a detailed section on the rise of Austro-fascism in the 1930s. Despite the high level of popular support for the Nazis, the Austrian resistance remained extremely active throughout the war, as a result of which 2700 of its members were executed and thousands more were murdered by the Gestapo. One block north of the Altes Rathaus on Salvatorgasse stands one of Vienna's finest Gothic churches, Maria am Gestade , up Salvatorgasse, topped by an elaborate filigree spire depicting the Virgin's heavenly crown, a stunning sight after dark when lit from within. With its drooping, beast-infested pendants and gilded mosaics, the stone canopy of the slender west facade is also worth admiring, best viewed from the steps leading up from Tiefergraben. The unusual interior - the nave is darker and narrower than the choir and set slightly askew - is a product of the church's cramped site, lying as it does on the very edge of the old medieval town. Much of what you see, both inside and out, is the result of nineteenth-century over-restoration, as the church caught fire in 1809 when it was used by the Napoleonic forces as an arms depot.
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