Vienna State Opera - IV

Here is another room for social functions.

Vienna State Opera - III

The curious thing about this opera house it that it has a narrowly defined repertoire of operas from a certain period (very roughly before 1900...ie. during the Austrian Empire) all written by composers who were from or spent a lot of time in Vienna. It also only considers compositions of a serious nature except for one...Der Fledermaus by Strauss is the only operetta.

VIenna State Opera - II

Lots of gold and red decorate this hallway. The splashes of azure in the inset paintings really adds a sparkle to the scene.

Vienna State Opera

Since we are in VIenna out of season, the only way to see the Vienna Opera House is on a tour. Probably cheaper anyway. As you might expect, it is a fancy place with lots of gold brightening the walls.

St. Stephansplatz

As is the case in many place in Europe, Vienna is a city of many curious juxtapositions. In this square, we find McDonald's located in a building of great beauty... not your neighborhood modern, boring, glass and concrete structure.

St. Michael's Church - II

This is not a huge place like St. Stephen's Cathedral nor an intimate chapel. It is a space that feels larger than it is and it provides wonderful acoustics for the pipe organ.

St. Michael's Church

Our last visit to a church in Vienna is a special one. St. Michael's is another baroque masterpiece. While not as over-the-top ornate as the Jesuit church you've already seen, it does contain many amazing sights. And, as you will discover, sounds.

The image above shows the main altar. From Wikipedia we learn that,

The high altar was designed in 1782 by Jean-Baptiste d’Avrange. It is decorated with the monumental stucco alabaster Rococo sculpture Fall of the Angels (1782) by sculptor Karl Georg Merville. It represents a cloudburst of angels and cherubs, falling from the ceiling towards the ground. It was the last major Baroque work completed in Vienna. The centerpiece of the high altar is Maria Candia, a Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary, belonging to the Cretan School of hagiography and named after the former capital (now Heraklion), displayed as being carried by two archangels.^[2][3]

Church of St. Maria Rotunda - II

There are plenty of beautiful paintings and statues here. When surrounded by finely crafted arts, it is easy to imagine someone feeling the presence of the "holy spirit" as they sat and meditated.

Church of St. Maria Rotunda

Now that you've seen the Jesuit church, here's the Dominican church. Clearly, the various flavors of catholicism all came to the source, the emperor, to find money. and it certainly looks like they all succeeded.

The Jesuit Church - II

The extravagance of this baroque styled church is endless and wall-to-wall. Everywhere you look is something more amazing that the last place.

The Jesuit Church

The Jesuits are well-known to be pretty flush with money and from the looks of this church, I'd say they had plenty of money to have built a place this opulent.

Art History, Vienna

In the Roman statue section, there is this room filled with stone heads on posts. In the dimly lit room, this was kinda creepy.

Art History Museum in Vienna

Years ago, on our first visit to Vienna, we missed all sort of things because it was Christmas and things were closed. We wanted to make up for some of this and this summer we stopped my the art history museum.

One of the fun things in most any country in Europe is that no major museum goes undecorated with a very patriotic statue out front. This one was no exception.

Votivkirche, Part II

It is a huge place. On this day, I was nearly alone here. You can almost imagine how, at night, without the light filling all the windows, this can seem a much cosier place.

Votivkirche

There was an assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853. To thank God for his survival, his brother, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian (who became the emperor of Mexico about a decade later) initiated a campaign to raise money to build a church. The church was dedicated in 1879 on the anniversary of Emperor Joseph and his wife Elizabeth (also known as Sissi and much loved in Hungary). Alas, Maximilian did not live to see this happen since he was killed in Mexico in 1867.

Zentralfriedhof - X

As we come to the end of our tour of the Central Cemetery, we find several imposing gravestones.

Zentralfriedhof - IX

I find that these grave sites that are covered with old vines and lots of ferns to be very much in the spirit of a 19th century cemetery. At least the spirit that we have from the literature of the age.

Zentralfriedhof - VIII

Now, back to the museum....Here is a scene that was often seen at a 19th century funeral.

Zentralfriedhof - VII

 

Also located at the cemetery is small but interesting museum filled with all sorts of things associated with death, and burial.

Zentralfriedhof - VI

Away from the more frequently visited areas, we find markers that are in need of some maintenance. However, the lush vegetation does give it a quality that the more neatly tended graves don't have.