WAS JOŽE PLEČNIK WHO DESIGNED THE RAILINGS?

Jože Plečnik was one of the two Slovenian architects who participated in Wagner's projects for the Vienna urban railway. After discovering his exceptional talent, Wagner entrusted him with the design of the major part of the important line of the urban railway along the Danube Canal, called the Donaukanallinie. It was on this section of the railway between the Franz Joseph embankment and Radetzky bridge, where also stood Plečnik's station Roßauerlände, that the richly ornamented railing in the Secessionist style was used for the first time, as was also erected on the Solkan Bridge between 1905 and 1906.

This fact represented a starting point for the expert of Plečnik's works and researcher Damjan Prelovšek in setting up the thesis that the railing on the Solkan Bridge was possibly the work of the architect Jože Plečnik. The works created in Wagner's studio bore his signature as the responsible bearer, while the authors of the works could be different.

He supported his theory by examining Wagner's decorative symbols and comparing them with the symbols of other authors who participated in the construction of the Vienna urban railway. On certain sections of the railway, the laurel wreaths differ in shape and placement in the railing. There is a visible difference between the wreaths that Wagner used as a decorative element on the pylons of the urban railway across the Wienzeile and those on the railing along the Danube Canal. There are also different patterns of the wreaths around the Imperial Pavilion in Schönbrunn, probably designed by Josef Maria Olbirch, and the wreaths along the Danube Canal. According to Prelovšek, “Plečnik understood the properties of iron and knew how to shape it as living matter”.

Based on the described comparisons and a careful examination of the font and the design of the railing for Plečnik's Roßauerlände station, which corresponds to the shape of the railing on the Solkan Bridge, Prelovšek came to a rather reliable assumption that the author of the railing, which is known today as one of several versions of Wagner's railings, could be the Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik. However, it is still an open question whether he designed the railing himself or whether he used the draft of his master Otto Wagner.

Jože Plečnik, 1872–1957 (stored by The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana).