St. Stephan's Cathedral

The Graben shopping street and two famous cake shops

The State Opera House

Hapsburg Palaces

Additional Sources:

Austria. C. Michelin et Cie, Propriétairtaires--Éditeurs 1992

A Guide to Central Europe, by Richard Basset. 1987, Penguin Group, London.

Vienna, by Martin Hürlimann. 1970, Thames and Hudon Ltd London.

Vienna Web site. Accessed September 4, 1998.

St. Stephan's: Vienna's Heart and Soul

by Tim Young

From SIF SATELLITE #51, Fall 1998

"As you go around a corner, the cathedral comes suddenly into view. Like a mountain, it is simple and wonderful; its sheer beauty lifts the spirit." The Austrian writer Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868) was talking about St. Stephan's Cathedral, one of Vienna's best known landmarks. The Steffel, as it is called, is central to the heart and soul of Vienna. Mioko and Akiko, after visiting Israel in December 1997, also visited Vienna, and of course visited the cathedral, first taking a photo of the outside, which Mioko notes looked "burned." St. Stephan's was severely damaged when the Russians invaded Vienna in 1945, and while the outside of the building still shows smoke damage from the battle, the inside has been well restored. Richard Basset writes:

Such devastation might suggest that one is about to enter one of those pitifully bleak, over-restored churches often to be found in German cities. Fortunately the craftsmen here did their work with rare skill, and the gloomy darkness of the interior seems completely medieval even to the most discerning eye.

Indeed, Mioko confirms, "it was very dark" inside.

Our travelers took the elevator to the roof of the cathedral, but didn't stay long; "it was too cold," especially at that height of about 220 feet (60 meters), where the cold wind could hit them straight on.

Returning to the ground floor, they examined a variety of sculptures inside the church. Mioko recalls, "One sculpture was on the wall; there was a man who was looking down at us." This is an image of Anton Pilgram, who in the early 16th century carved the church's stone pulpit, along with not one but two self-portraits--the one Mioko noticed in the organ base at the back of the nave, looking down forlornly with his carving tools in hand; the other, at the base of the pulpit itself, shows him, again holding tools, poking his head out of a half-open window.

Several incarnations of the cathedral have existed on this same site over the centuries. It was originally a Romanesque-style basilica, built in 1137-47. Michelin Tire's guide to Austria says that it was "soon replaced with a similar building, in a style anticipating the Gothic style." Much of this church was destroyed in the great Vienna fire of 1258, and only the "Riesentour" (Giant's Doorway), on the west end, still survives.

Akiko, left, and Mioko on the roof of St. Stephan's, above; the view from the roof, at right.

In 1359, Duke Rudolf IV of Hapsburg laid the cornerstone of the current Gothic-style nave. Construction continued for over a century: the 137m (448ft) south tower was completed in 1433, the north tower (224ft) not till 1597. Due to the time lag between the construction of the two towers, the south tower is done in Gothic style, while the north tower's roof is Renaissance style. The north tower contains Austria's largest bell, the Pummerin ("Boomer bell"). Michelin notes that the bell was "crudely cast from a Turkish cannon captured in 1683," after a Turkish attack on central Europe was thwarted.

The Pestsäule (from Vienna, by Martin Hürlimann)

The Catacombs under St. Stephan's contain, according to Vienna's Web site, "the mausoleum of the bishops, the tombs of Duke Rudolf the Founder and 14 other members of the Hapsburg family, and urns with the intestines of the Hapsburgs buried between 1650 and the 19th century in the Imperial Burial Vault." Pleasant stuff. Visitors are only admitted to the catacombs on guided tours. "We couldn't go into the Catacombs by ourselves," says Mioko. "And the tour guide spoke English and German. But his English sounded like German! It was very hard to understand."

In the Catacombs, Mioko and Akiko saw about 20 rooms packed full of bones from the victims of the plague of 1679. The bones are all black, apparently because the remains were burned. "You can see from a small window, and there are so many bones but it looks like many pieces of wood. Just many pieces, full of pieces. I thought it would be scary, but it wasn't," since the bones were not easily recognizable as human remains.

But why are the bones stored at St. Stephan's? "Maybe so many people died at one time and they didn't have a place to bury them," Mioko muses.

St. Stephan's stands next to the shopping street called the Graben. A bit farther down that street stands a tall memorial, commemorating the passing of that plague. The Pestsäule ("Plague column", or sometimes called the Trinity Column) was built in 1682-93. It stands as a reminder to us that the good health that much of the world enjoys today, thanks to modern medicine and sanitation, is something we should not take for granted.

Next: a further exploration down the Graben >>

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