August 30-September 1: Vienna Redux

 

Exterior of the Royal Apartments and Sisi Museum

To the Gaffers
I wanted people to let me
In peace´ and unscathed,
I'm only certainly
A human born like them.
Bile's almost coming out of me,
When they fix me up like that?
I'd like to creep into a snail shell.
And die of anger.
If I see an opera glass
Treacherously directed at me,
I wanted this this,
And the person is destroyed.

Poetry of The Empress Sisi (Elizabeth of Austria). More about her later, but Princess Diana and Megan Markle might be clones.

The Viking Cruise line has many advantages for travelers, but like so many boat trips, doesn't give you much time in any one place. And seeing Vienna even superficially in a day is impossible, so we decided to go back for a second look after the trip was completed. 

We took the train from Passau which was an easy and enjoyable two and half hour excursion through mostly rural and agricultural land dotted here and there with stations and small villages. 

We arrived in the afternoon to our Airbnb which is a really central location and walkable to most sites of interest to tourists.  It was also a pretty awesome apartment with marble floor and our required long trip summer features: an air-conditioner, wi-fi and a washing machine. Dryer not necessary, but hey! They had one. They even had ice trays which are a rarity in Europe. (I know. Americans. Always fixated on ice, eh?) 

1 Judengasse. Rent here!

We didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing, so we decided to visit three nearby cathedrals, St. Stephan, St. Peter and St Michael. 

This towering Romanesque church, St Stephan,  is first mentioned in documents of 1137AD and consecrated in 1147 AD. It was most likely destroyed in part in a great Viennese fire of 1285 and rebuilt with all the towers, pomp and circumstance by the mid-1700s. In the final days of the Second World War, flying sparks from burning houses in the vicinity caused a fire in the Gothic wooden roof truss. This led to the collapse of a supporting wall of the choir’s roof truss, which penetrated the vaults of the south and middle choir. In addition to most of the bells, the organ, the imperial oratorio, the Gothic choir stalls, and a number of other artworks were destroyed by the flames. On 26 April 1952, the cathedral church was ready to be reopened by Theodor Cardinal Innitzer after St. Stephan had been rebuilt in just seven years with active financial support from the federal states and numerous fundraising campaigns. Rick Steve's travel guide to Vienna devotes an entire chapter to just this church, so obviously, there is more to the story than I have mentioned.   

 

The first of many chapels you'll see upon entering St. Stephen's Cathedral is the Tirna Chapel. Built in 1359, it's the burial place of Prince Eugene, renowned as the conqueror of the Turks. In addition to the 15th-century Crucifix above the altar, the beard of Christ is made of human hair and, according to legend, is still growing.

This is a very large church with many small chapels inside and a massive organ that had 12,000 pipes and was restored in 2020. Concerts are held daily.

From here we migrated a few blocks to the almost equally massive and nearly as fancy St Peter's church.

View of St Peters Church 

Interior of St Peter's Church

The oldest church building (of which nothing remains today) dates back to the Middle Ages, and there is speculation that it could be the oldest church in Vienna.  The church was built on the site of a Roman encampment. This church was replaced with a Romanesque church with a nave and two aisles. It is believed to have been established by Charlamagne around 800, although there is no evidence supporting this view. At the outside of the church, there is a relief sculpture of its consecration to the founding of the church by Charlemagne as the only suggestion he had anything to do with it. In any case, this church is first mentioned in 1137. The old church burned down in 1661 and was given only makeshift repairs. The decision to build a new church was taken up with the arrival of the Fraternity of the Holy Trinity of which the emperor Leopold I was a member. He had taken a vow to rebuild this church when Vienna was ravaged by the plague in 1679–1680. Apparently, he is rumored to have fallen to his knees and vowed to restore it if the city survived the plague. After Covid, I think we can all empathize with his feelings and pleas! The new design was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. There is gold aplenty in the interior and like many cathedrals of this ilk, there is an overall darkness about the place. Renovations have recently taken place to brighten many of the paintings and statues to their original colorfulness. 

Last church we saw, and again only a stone's throw from the previous one was St. Michael's. This was a small and less ornate church, it is nonetheless, pretty fancy!

A late-comer to the Vienna central city scene, St Michael's was likely built around 1220 AD. The true date and origins appear to be somewhat shrouded in mystery and even forgery! There is some speculation that it was built as late as the 17th century. Who knows? It seems to have had it's problems.  If it was built in 1220, history states it burned down in 1276 and 1327. Then for grins, it was partially destroyed in an earthquake in 1590. Fortunately, it escaped major damage during WWII. The church was however completely closed as a parish for a period in the early 20th century until taken over by the Salvatorian order. To quote the church's website:  "In 750 years, the Church of St. Michael has experienced ups and downs. For more than 90 years, an unstoppable upswing took place under Salvatorian supervision. Father Pancratius Pfeiffer quoted Federal Chancellor Ignaz Seipel in the annals of June 15, 1924, when he visited him in the ministry on Ballhausplatz and they came to talk about the Barnabite objects: 'Look down the street; We have your new St. Michael branch in front of us right now! [...] Take heart, the future belongs to the younger cooperatives!' "

We could have probably visited a few more churches from the 12th and 13th centuries, but Paul planned dinner for us at Heunisch and Erben, a Michelin "bib" restaurant. Food porn alert. It was a highly edible four course tasting menu with Austrian wine pairings!

Sea bass

The restaurant's sign

Paul's Ponderings:   We had a great day out in Vienna after our return.   It's a very walkable and scenic place (no suprise) and we finished up with a great dinner.    The boat trip was nice, but it's great to be back doing our own thing.