Mozarts Pinkelstein (Mozart's Pee Stone)

Raschala is a typical village in the Weinviertel, a wine-growing region in Austria. For the most part, it’s similar to other villages in the region: There are wine bars, wine barrels, and the Kellergasse, a lane where the wine cellars and press houses are located. There’s also a monument marking a spot where the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have relieved his bladder. Just one problem: Mozart never went to Raschala.

Many tourists come to the Weinviertel to see one of the nice little wine villages and a cellar lane. But they were going to other places in the region, not to Raschala. In 1975, the people of Raschala wanted to attract more visitors. They would have to have something that others didn’t, but what?

An idea emerged, inspired by Erik Mörike’s 1855 novella Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag (Mozart’s Journey to Prague). The novella is a fictional reimagining of a day in Mozart’s life in 1787, during which the composer and his wife Konstanze travel from Vienna to Prague, where Mozart would conduct the first performance of his opera Don Giovanni. As Raschala was on the route from Vienna to Prague, it seemed possible that the village could have been. a stop on this fictional journey.

The idea was born and immediately implemented. A beautiful story was invented, a granite block was acquired, and a nice tablet with an inscription was made. The memorial was inaugurated, during Mardi Gras celebrations in 1976. And now it stands there, the sight of Raschala, and tells of a very special event on Mozart’s fictional trip to Prague.

According to the people of Raschala, he stopped in the village and visited one of the wine bars. He liked the wine very much and that’s why he drank a lot of it. If you drink a lot, you have to pee a lot. As he was about to leave the village, Mozart made his driver stop quickly and jumped out of the carriage. And then he had to pee long and copious just at the point where the stone is now. And that’s worth a monument, isn’t it?

Mozart’s Pinkelstein is set up on the Kellerplatz. You should definitely see the wine cellars and press houses here in Alte Poststrasse as well as in the Kellergasse branching at the church. The church from 1877 is also worth seeing.