On September 13, 1966, a ceremony was held to lay the cornerstone of the Vienna University Observatory’s branch facility at Mitterschöpfl near Altenmarkt an der Triesting. On the same day, the Academic Senate decided to name the new observatory after its great advocate, Leopold Figl.
Just a few years after the university's observatory opened on the Türkenschanze in 1883, it had become clear that artificial lighting, air pollution, and the city’s climatic conditions were significantly impairing astronomical observations. However, it was not until the university’s 600th anniversary in 1965 that the plan for a new observatory site, located about 50 kilometers southwest of Vienna, was realized with the support of the state of Lower Austria. Officially inaugurated in 1969, a new era of astronomical research began at the observatory when scientific operations commenced in December 1970.
