The first event of the excursion was the celebration of Mass at Kapuzinerkloster, the funeral church for the royals of Vienna. I believe it has always been occupied by Franciscans. A really neat story that we were told about this church was when people would come seeking entrance: The representatives would come to the door and knock, and the friar inside would ask "Who seeks entrance?" The representatives would respond with the with a long list of all the titles of the person whom they represented, which could go on for perhaps twenty minutes. The friar would respond: "I do not know him/her." The representatives knock again. "Who seeks entrance?" They would respond with the person's name and a shortened form of the list of their titles. "I do not know her." They would knock again. "Who seeks entrance?" Finally, the representatives understood and replied: "[insert name], a poor sinner." "Let them come in." What's significant about this is that it is the fact that we are sinners that makes all men equal, and what allows us to enter into the house of God is our need for His mercy.
I'm still in awe of the tremendous detail and beauty of the statues all over Austria. Wow... This depiction of the thirteenth station is just breathtaking.
After Mass, we split up into tour groups and set out to explore the streets of Vienna.
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| The art museum, which I hope to return to Vienna to see. |
We made our way over the Josefsplatz, so named because of the statue of Emperor Joseph II in the center of the plaza. I'm so pleased that so many of the places that I hope to see in the places we've visited thus far always seem to be places our tours take us to. :) Behind the statue is the library, where the architects who restored the Kartause did all their research. To the right of the statue is the Spanish Riding School, and to the left is the Augustinerkirche.
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| Emperor Joseph II |
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| The Library. |
First we stopped inside the Church of St. Augustine (Augustinerkirche).
What made the trip to Vienna very special for me was that the Lord inspired me to pray for people in each of the churches I visited. In this particular church, I prayed for my family, immediate and extended, and my very dear friends from childhood and recent years (yup, Service Corps family, you were among these.) There was a beautiful painting of St. Rita of Cascia in the church, as well, so I made sure to pray for my sister who chose St. Rita as her Confirmation saint. :)
Most of the churches I had seen thus far had been Baroque in style; but St. Augustine's was Gothic. The major differences are that there is a lot less gold and glory to the architecture. The tall pillars and vaulted ceilings, as well as the tall altarpiece, all draw your attention upward, which was the intention: to raise the mind toward the things of heaven. Baroque style was more about bringing a piece of heaven to earth.
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| St. Rita of Cascia, pray for us! |
These statues are part of a monument to the Hapsburgs. The Hapsburg's were the royal family who held control of most of Europe for a number of centuries. I love the lion with the angel. It reminds me of Narnia!
Upon leaving the church, we walked through the Spanish Riding School!! I was so excited! Ever since I was 10 and had read a story that included a Lippizaner, which are the horses trained here at the school, I wanted to see one. And we didn't just get to see them; they literally were walking them through the passageway and across our path. I was close enough that I could've reached out and touched one. They are such beautiful animals! I think it would be awesome to see them practice. Our guide told us it really looks like they dance... :)
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| Beautiful!!!! |
I believe the above photos are from the Hofberg Complex. I was rather absorbed in the surroundings, so I didn't hear exactly where we were. :P Plus, I'm catching this up a while after this adventure, so...I don't remember much about it. But I'm pretty sure the domed building is the palace.
What caught my attention was Michalekirche: St. Michael's Church, the servant's church; but it was so beautiful that I would have been happy to be a servant if it meant I got to go to Mass there. ;) Haha! It was so awesome for me, personally, because St. Michael is the patron saint of my household at Franciscan University. We went inside to pray the prayer to St. Michael, and I lit a candle there for the members of my household. :)
We walked to the Hofburg complex from St. Michael's, which gives a splendid view of some of the great buildings of the city.
Hitler, Pope John Paul II, and Fr. Denny TOR from FUS spoke from this platform.
So thrilled with this picture. :D
We popped into St. Peter's for a moment, where Mass has been said consistently for several hundred years.
The Plague Column: a customary practice was to erect columns as a commemoration of the mercy of God in delivering towns from the plague.
And then we came to Stephansdom: St. Stephen's Cathedral. It's towering steeple above the city was an amazing sight. The roof is all tiles. :) Pretty awesome stuff. We were told that inside there are relics of St. Valentine, which was cool since we were in Vienna on Valentine's Day. :) We didn't get to see the relics, but it was still cool to know. :)
This was the symbol of the Austrian Resistance during World War II against the Nazis. St. Stephen's was their meeting-place.
As we walked to the restaurant where we would have lunch, I chanced upon a Teddy Bear collection displayed in a window.
Our lunch stop: Apostelenkeller.
Austrian coffee.
After lunch, I wandered back to St. Stephen's with some friends. We took a look inside, and I made my first "souvenir" purchase: a medal of St. Christopher. Then we climbed to the top of the steeple. It was a loooooooong way up; by the time you were half-way up, your knees were already killing you. But the view was amazing!!
We proceeded to visit the cafe where "Bambi" was written: Griensteidl. I got a nice cup of hot chocolate. :)
We returned to St. Michael's, too, which was just as beautiful at night. The lighting was such that all you could see was the tabernacle, and the picture of Mama Mary and the Child Jesus above it. We also found a little Marian chapel in the back with a lovely statue of the Blessed Mother.
We also revisited St. Peter's, since we hadn't spent much time there earlier.
What's really cool is that the part of the cupola that is illuminated, below the glowing gold peak with the Holy Spirit depicted, is the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
After some more wandering of the Viennese streets, shopping in random stores, riding in a super classy, old-fashioned elevator in the Vienna H&M store, pizza at Lubella's restaurant, and more wandering, we ran into some people who had just come from the ballet at the opera house. They wanted to go and check out a place called "Jazzland" that someone had recommended to them. So we decided to go together. Well...turns out, "Jazzland" is in a really shady area of Vienna...as in, not somewhere you probably want to go at night. Heh. So we didn't go there. But God used it for good. We started going back towards the main part of Vienna, and found a church.
The church was an 11th century Romanesque church dedicated to St. Rupert and containing the oldest stained glass window in history, rescued during World War II from the Nazis by being placed in storage (Monuments Men work, perhaps? ;) I wondered...). The church was very plain inside. But the Crucifix was beautiful, and the Blessed Sacrament was reserved there. We sang the Chaplet of Divine Mercy before the Lord. This attracted the attention of the nightwatchman, who came in and listened to us pray. As we were heading out, he asked us where we were from. Then he started telling us all about the church and made sure we signed the guest-book. He was from Poland, and, though he admitted the opposite, spoke quite good English. It was really awesome. We could tell that we had really made his night.
The next day, we began with Mass and Minorskirche: another Franciscan church, built in the Gothic style. I really liked this church a lot. The Marian altar was beautiful. I spent a good deal of time in prayer there before Mass began.
This mosaic is a copy of DaVinci's "Last Supper" painting, commissioned by Napoleon, who wanted to steal the original and leave this in Vienna in its stead. It weighs something like 20 tons! Napoleon died before he could complete the plan. What's crazy is that unless you get close to it and see the way the light reflects off the tiles, you'd never know that it was a mosaic and not a painting.
After Mass, we explored the Hofberg gardens, and took the Metro out towards the Vienna market. As we walked that way, we found Karskirche: the church dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo.
We would have had to pay to go inside Karlskirche, so we didn't see the inside.
We found a monument to Johannes Brahms.
The market was a super-fun experience! We just wandered around and looked at all the fresh ingredients you could buy, and also did some looking around at the clothing items and such. For lunch, a friend and I just bought a baguette and romano cheese and ate it while we explored. It was really fun! We also stopped off in a cafe and enjoyed some coffee.
We ran into more friends, and headed towards the Viennese ferris wheel. They all went for a ride, but I stayed back with another person and browsed the souvenir shop. Well...somehow we missed our group coming off of the ferris wheel, so we had to navigate our own way back to the place where the buses would pick us up. Thankfully, this wasn't too difficult to do, and I gained some confidence in my ability to navigate. Haha!
"And there you have it!"
Vienna.
'Nough said.
Enjoy the day, all you state-side! Good night from Gaming!
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