The Rotunde () in Vienna's Leopoldstadt district was a building erected for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair (). The building was a partially covered circular wrought iron construction, tall, with a diameter of . While the Rotunde stood, its dome was the largest in the world, larger than the Pantheon in Rome..
The Rotunde burned down in 1937. Its former site is now occupied by buildings associated with the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and with Messe Wien.
The Rotunde was designed by the Austrian architect Baron Karl von Hasenauer, and was built by the German entrepreneur and bridge builder and his company based in Duisburg. The Scottish civil engineer John Scott Russell was responsible for the dome, which was built with wrought iron.
The German engineer and journalist Wilhelm Heinrich Uhland reported, that the Rotunde weighed approximately "80,000 hundredweight (Zoll centner), or about 4000 tons", that is, .
The central building of the World's Fair was accepted enthusiastically by the public. After the World's Fair, the Rotunde was used for shows and fairs.
Alexander Girardi performed in the Rotunde on 24âÂÂ25 May 1885, singing Gustav Pick's new composition, the , for the first time.
In 1898, Emperor Franz Joseph's Jubilee Exhibition (Jubiläumsausstellung) was held in the Rotunde. The "Collective Exhibition of Austrian Automobile Builders" (), organized by the (), was held as part of the Jubilee Exhibition. Four automobiles from manufacturers in Austria-Hungary were shown: the automobile built by Siegfried Marcus in 1888âÂÂ1889 (the first automobile built in Austria-Hungary), an Egger-Lohner electric automobile, an Egger-Lohner petrol automobile, and the (now Tatra) Präsident.