Donauinsel, separating New Danube (left) from Danube (right). View from Kahlenberg. Mind Millennium Tower near the center of the picture, and UNO-City at left margin

Copa Cagrana with lighthouse and pontoon bridge, from SE. In the background: Millennium Tower, Kahlenberg (w. antenna), Leopoldsberg (w. church) and, far out, Klosterneuburg.

Part of a nudist beach

The Donauinsel (Danube Island) is an island of 21.1 kilometres length which is only 70-210 metres broad, accompanying the river Danube along most of its way through the town area of Vienna, Austria's capital, on the left escorted by the newly excavated Neue Donau (literally New Danube), practically an elongate (swimming) lake, technically a diluvian bed.^[1] Panoramic image of Vienna Template:GNU FDL File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Panoramic image of Vienna Template:GNU FDL File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Kahlenberg with the tower, church, and scenic overlook Kahlenberg is a mountain (484 m, 1588 ft) located in Döbling, Vienna, Austria. ... Millennium Tower might refer to one of the following buildings: Jahrtausendturm, aka the Millennium Tower, in Magdeburg, Germany London Millennium Tower Tour du Millénaire in Belgium Millennium Tower, Frankfurt (planned skyscraper to be Europes tallest in 2011) Millennium Tower, Vienna Millennium Tower, Bratislava Millennium Tower (Amsterdam) Millennium Tower... The Vienna International Centre (VIC), colloquially also known as UNO City in Vienna, is the campus and building complex hosting United Nations organizations in Vienna, Austria. ... Klosterneuburg is a city in Lower Austria with a population of 24,442. ... This article is about the Danube River. ... “km” redirects here. ... This article is about the Danube River. ... For other uses, see Vienna (disambiguation). ...

Recreation and festival venue

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" (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. Blading redirects here. ... Cycling is the use of bicycles, or - less commonly - unicycles, tricycles, quadricycles and other similar wheeled human powered vehicles (HPVs) as a means of transport, a form of recreation or a sport. ... Swimmer redirects here. ... Canoeing is the recreational or sporting activity of paddling a canoe or kayak. ... For other uses, see Beach (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Brazilian city. ... , Famous Portuguese pavement wave pattern at Copacabana beach. ... Beach in Koktebel. ...

The Donauinselfest is an internationally well-known annual open air festival, and Europe's biggest event of this kind, expected to soon hit the 3-million-visitors mark. It takes place at the end of June (Friday through Sunday) - except for 2008 (Sept. 5th-7th), due to Austria (& Switzerland) hosting the European Football Championship. The Donauinselfest (German for Danube Island Festival) is a festival which takes place annually on the Donauinsel in Vienna, Austria. ... The UEFA European Football Championship is the main football competition of the mens national football teams governed by the UEFA. Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations Cup, changing to the name European Football...

Reliable flood protection

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 town (before major extensions: 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 inundation area of 450 m was created at the river's left bank.

In 1970, a new plan was conceived and soon realised: digging an additional diluvian bed to replace the former inundation area, and throwing up the dugout in the remaining strip of land between the straightened bed (as it exists since the 19th century river training) and the newly created one, now being called Neue Donau (New Danube). As an addendum, the thus created island should eventually be used for recreation. The flood control system is designed to protect from flash floods bringing up to 14,000 m3 per second (which in Vienna's history was recorded once, in 1501; the heavy 2002 flood braught 10,000 m3 per second). It includes the Danube Canal's historic Nußdorf watergate, locks on either end of New Danube, a groundwater level control system integrated into the right bank flood levee (granting appropriate conditions for the large park area Prater, once part of a wide alluvial forest zone), and the new Freudenau river plant's sluice. ^[2] The Donaukanal and its gently sloping banks (Details) The Donaukanal (Danube Canal) is a former arm of the river Danube rather than a canal. ... Nußdorf was a separate municipality until 1892 and is today a suburb of Vienna in the 19th district of Döbling. ... The Wiener Prater is a large public park in Viennas second district. ...

The works were started in March 1972 ^[3] and finished in 1988^[4], the river plant was added from 1992 to 1998.

References and other external links

• 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.

Coordinates: 48°14′N, 16°24′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...