The Prater is 6 square kilometres of former imperial hunting ground that Emperor Joseph II opened to the public in 1766 — and at its entrance turns the Wiener Riesenrad, the giant Ferris wheel built in 1897 for Franz Joseph's golden jubilee. At 65 metres it was among the world's tallest for decades, survived a 1944 fire that halved its gondolas to fifteen, and earned film immortality as the setting of Orson Welles' "cuckoo clock" speech in The Third Man. A rotation takes about 12–15 minutes and costs around €14.50; the red wooden cabins also host booked dinners and even weddings.
Around its base spreads the Wurstelprater, Vienna's amusement park: free to enter, pay-per-ride, with some 250 attractions from ghost trains and bumper cars dating back generations to modern coasters and the 117-metre Praterturm swing carousel. Most rides operate March to October (core hours roughly 10:00–22:00 in season); the Riesenrad itself turns year-round. The Schweizerhaus beer garden — pork knuckle and Budweiser Budvar under the chestnut trees, mid-March to October — is as much a Prater institution as any ride.
Beyond the funfair, the Green Prater is plain parkland: the 4.5-kilometre chestnut-lined Hauptallee runs dead straight from Praterstern to the Lusthaus pavilion, closed to cars and thick with runners and cyclists (the Vienna Marathon finishes along it). U1 or U2 to Praterstern lands a two-minute walk from the wheel — go on a clear evening, ride at dusk, and eat at the Schweizerhaus afterwards.
