Kasematten und Neue Bastei

About this place

The Kasematten und Neue Bastei is a landmark adaptive reuse project at the southwestern corner of Wiener Neustadt's historic fortification belt. The complex's origins trace to the city's medieval foundation, but its defining form came between 1551 and 1557, when master builder Johann Tscherte oversaw construction of vaulted underground chambers — casemates designed to store ammunition and enable cannon movement through covered passageways. For centuries the site served changing purposes: weapons storage, beer cellars, and eventually a venue for jazz festivals, before falling into prolonged disuse. The occasion for its revitalization was the 2019 Lower Austrian State Exhibition, for which Ljubljana-based Bevk Perovic Arhitekti were selected through competition to create the Welcome Center and the Neue Bastei. The project's intelligence lies in its restraint. Rather than competing with the ancient masonry, the architects created a gently sloping public square that bridges street level and the semi-submerged casemate floor, drawing visitors down into the labyrinthine vaulted halls. Historic brick surfaces were cleared of later accretions and left largely unadorned; new concrete floors and selective glazing mark the intervention without overpowering it. The Neue Bastei — a new multipurpose hall — sits alongside with perforated aluminum cladding and top-lit interiors, offering flexible programming space while opening onto the adjacent Stadtpark. The project totals 2,900 square metres (900 m2 existing, 2,000 m2 new). The approach — where new material and old masonry are kept visually distinct but spatially continuous — earned the Piranesi Award and the BIG SEE Architecture Award 2020. The visitor circuit is the experience: entering through the contemporary foyer, descending into barrel-vaulted darkness, and emerging through the new hall back into daylight.