Forgotten Galicia

Many of the old conscription numbers can still be found in Vienna, usually on plaques located inside a building’s entrance on the left-hand side near the door or above the second portal near the stairwell.

House numbering was introduced in Europe in the eighteenth century (before that houses usually had names). According to this article: “This technology was not introduced to facilitate orientation for the cities’ inhabitants or to be helpful to foreigners; its origin can be located in the border areas of early modern police, military and tax administration. It aimed to give the state access to the riches and resources of every house, and to make it easier to control, tax or recruit their inhabitants, or to lodge soldiers.”

Vienna underwent many house numbering projects; in particular, the conscription numbers in Vienna were changed in 1795, 1821, and after 1874.

For example, this building has had many different conscription numbers throughout the centuries (more info here). The house received the number 1379 in the early 1790s, making this sign over 200 years old.

According to this source: “On May 2, 1862 the Vienna Municipal Council decided to supplement conscription numbers with orientation numbers. Henceforth each street would be numbered separately with even numbers on one side and odd numbers on the other. Thus having become redundant in daily use the conscription number, however, did not completely lose its function: When in 1874 Vienna land title registries started to be re-established in those areas which were then districts 1 through 9 the conscription number was drawn upon for the allocation of the so-called land title registry entry number.”

Plaques

Here’s another example of one of the earlier conscription numbers, probably also from the 1790s (above the conscription number is a building (orientation) number plaque):

The plaques are from one of the later projects in the 1800s. Along with the conscription number, they included the district number (there were 9 districts in Vienna.) (Lviv’s plaques also included the district number.) Since Vienna underwent so many renumberings, seems it was also important to include the older conscription number on the new signs.

District I

Roman numeral on top = district number
Conscriptions – Nro 204 = Conscription No. 204
Fruher 1190 Stadt = Formerly 1109 Stadt