Vienna Attractions and places to visit
The Minorites Church Vienna
The Minorites' church's interior, entered from the west door, is bleak and white like many Viennese churches, but it contains a unique, for Austria, piece of Rococo Gothic in its high altar, again by the ubiquitous Hohenburg. A chapel to the left of this pays tribute to the many Italians who once lived under the Habsburg monarchy, and the church today is still the Italian church in the city.
The Abraham and Sancta Clara Gasse leads from the Palais Liechten stein to the Bankgasse, where the Hungarian embassy is housed in an impressive late-eighteenth-century palace. To its right is the Palais Batthany, probably designed by Fischer von Erlach, but uninteresting save for the rather heavy portal.
The rather down-at-heel palais opposite in the Herrengasse is the former property, of the Harrach family, who, like the Batthanys, Dietrichsteins and Liechtensteins, all held important positions at the Austrian court, e.ach family having the right to be part of this most exclusive club by virtue of the sixteen quarterings their arms displayed. For some years now the Harrach Palais has stood empty, a sad reminder of the former glory of the Herrengasse.
The Palais Porcia Vienna
At the end of the Herrengasse, the Palais Porcia (built in 1546) contains a delightful courtyard with blind arcades, which even the worst excesses of modern Austrian bad taste, such as ugly lamps, have failed to destroy. Next door stands the piece de resistance of the entire street, the Palais Kinsky. Built by Hildebrandt in 1712 for Count Daun, it has a rich facade and a spectacular staircase (apply to the porter; the ability to speak Serbo-Croat is useful). The narrowness of the space available for Hildebrandt in no way cramped his style,as the magnificent stone panels of the balustrade still indicate. Once it was possible to eat delicious goulash in the former palace stables, where a restaurant thrived under pictures of Herzog and other horses. It is now closed, but the nearby Cafe Central makes a suitable end to a day's sightseeing.
Off the beaten track in Vienna
Off the well-trodden paths of the Herrengasse, Graben and Kohlmarkt, there are less well-known corners of Vienna which seem to have remained unchanged for decades and even at the height of summer afford refuge from the crowds of sightseers.
Opposite the west end of St Stephen's Cathedral runs the Jaso-mirgottstrasse. 'Jasomirgott' ('So help me God'), a common phrase in Vienna, was the nickname bestowed on Heinrich II (1141-77), the first Habsburg to establish his capital in Vienna, because of his fondness for this particular oath. It was during his rule that Austria was given the special status of a hereditary Duchy within the Holy Roman Empire.
At the end of this street stands a picturesque eighteenth-century building. By contrast, a turning to the right leads into Brandstiitte, where can be seen one of the most extraordinary pre-First World War con¬structions in Vienna: the Zacherlhaus by JosefPlecnik (1872-1956). The large metal angel fixed to the facade was long dubbed by the Viennese the patron saint of cockroach assassins, as the house used to be the headquarters of a company dedicated to the production of D.D.T. Some eighty years after it was erected, in 1907, the building still has a startling modernity about it.
The Tuchlauben which leads off to the left has some interesting houses, too, notably a Neo -Classical chemist's and the early eighteenth ¬century Hochholzerhof to its right. The Steindlgasse between them weaves its way to the least changed quarters of the city. The Gosser¬bierklinik offers appetizing Austrian cuisine and is a suitable halting post for lunch. The nearby Kurrentgasse contains a more sophisticated restaurant. The Steindlgasse eventually leads to the picturesque Schulhof, where the Vienna clock museum is well worth at least a cursory inspection. To our left is the Gothic choir of the church Am Hof. We should bear this medieval exterior in mind when we later turn the corner and go inside. The palais at NO.4 Schulhof is the final jewel in the square, although its courtyard is a disappointment after the rich decoration of the mellow seventeenth-century facade, which is the very finest early Baroque.
The Am Hof Square Vienna
An arch to the left leads to the square Am Hof (literally 'At the Court'), so called because it was here that Jasomirgott established his court when he made Vienna his capital. The square, like so many in Vienna, has suffered the ravages of cars but it remains a pleasant space bounded to the left by the Baroque church and to the right in the opposite corner by the sixteenth-century arsenal, now the headquarters of the Fire Brigade.
The church Am Hof, with its early seventeenth-century Baroque facade pushing out into the square, is a not particularly convincing attempt at Roman Baroque spatial effects as practised by Borromini. The interior has a hopelessly cluttered and tasteless nave dating from the first half of the seventeenth century, although the choir, with its striking coffering so unexpected after the very Gothic exterior is rather more successful. The church today is the city shrine of the Croat population of Vienna and on Sundays is crowded with happy, devout Balkan types.
The Vienna cellars
On the same side of the square, at No. 12, is the Urbanikeller. No other part of the city gives a better impression of the seventeenth-century cellars that lie underneath most of the old city than this unpretentious restaurant. To step down its wooden stairs is to enter another world and to understand why the besieging Turks in 1683 set so much store by mining underneath the city's fortifications. An entry forced here, if successful, would have had dire consequences for the future of the city.
At the centre of the square stands a monument to the Virgin Mary, erected in 1667 by Kaiser Leopold I. The quaint putti contest, albeit with little obvious commitment, the evils of war, hunger and the plague.
From this square we can move back towards the town centre to the left and perhaps stop for a quick bite at the excellent Jugendstil Black Camel, the only bar and restaurant which offers Italian-style standing service for those in need of a quick bite. But to the right, past the Austrian flag factory, there is another interesting square, the Freyung.
The Benedictine Church Vienna
The uninspired church here is the Benedictine Schottenkirche (1638-48), named after its first monks, who were of Celtic origin and were referred to as Scots, although it seems more likely that they were Irish. In any event they were Benedictines whom Heinrich Jasomirgott, impressed by what he had heard of this order's piety, decided to summon to Austria in 1150. But within a year of their arrival, these monks considerably rumed the feathers of their Viennese hosts. According to a contemporary account, 'they stuck obstinately to their language and quarrelled constantly with the inhabitants'. They were reported to be trading in furs, initiating wild dances (reels?) and, most scandalously of all, starting 'games of ball'.
This was the last straw. Duke Albrecht V told the monks that their monastery would no longer be restricted to Celts. Abbot Thomas's response to this decree manifested a robust disrespect, unashamedly Irish, for the authorities. He tersely announced that if monks of any other nationality entered the building, he and his fellow Hibernians would strangle them. Some German Benedictines who did attempt to enter were given a fierce drubbing. But by 1432 the Germans had succeeded in expelling these unwelcome guests and setting up a model, if less boisterous, monastery.
The courtyard today, with its austere Neo-Classicism, shows little sign of such disturbances, and the fine library (apply to the Abbot) has a tranquillity which is still completely monastic. A statue in the courtyard commemorates Jasomirgott, while a second courtyard offers a calm if inaccessible area of green. For a glimpse of anything dating from the turbulent years of Abbot Thomas we must enter the Schotten church.
This is the French church of the city and contains several monuments to French families who either fought for or served under the Habsburgs. The Baroque decoration of the interior, the work of A. Allio, is less fussy than that of the Am Hof church and there are some fine monu¬ments, especially a Neo-Classical black marble one on the right, to balance this bland decor. The last altar on the left contains the oldest statue of a Madonna in Vienna, while the passage beyond the choir has some masonry and fragments of fresco which are contemporary with Abbot Thomas's rowdy monks. In the crypt below lies Jasomirgott himself, in a humble tomb one cannot help feeling Heinrich would have approved of.
Leaving the church, there is another characteristic coffee house at the Cafe Haag in the courtyard (Schottenhof). Back past the heavy monument on the church's farrade is a nineteenth-century depiction {'¬Jasomirgott's medieval virtues, and passing the fragrant herb chemist', the street soon leads to the Palais Schon born, another precious creation of Fischer von Erlach. It no longer boasts its fine private painting collection, but the rooms on the first floor, now belonging to the Mexican embassy, are decorated in the best Viennese Rococo.
At Renngasse No. 12 there is a charming courtyard with a commemorative medallion to Kaiser Franz Josef and his wife, Elizabeth. Ahead, the Wipplingerstrasse leads to the left, to the Vienna Stock Exchange, a handsome building by Theophil Hansen, the architect of ¬the Vienna Parliament, as quiet as a sepulchre, thanks to Austria socialism. The road to the right leads to the curious High Bridge, a remarkable testament to the dramatic differences i between the innermost fortifications and the outer ring which would have fallen away from us to our left. A plaque above the art nouveau metalwork of the bridge relates that this was the eastern gate into the city during the days of the Babenbergs.
The Schwertgasse to the left leads to another legacy of medieval time in Passauer Square, the church of Maria am Gestade. The church's name, meaning literally 'On the Steps', refers to the fact that the stairs at the west end once led against the Danube, which ran here until it was rerouted in the 1890S b Otto Wagner. Fishermen deposited their catches here, and for this reason the church is the patron of all those concerned with the sea. Its magniflcent facade was constructed between 1394 and 1427 after the plans of Michael Weinwurm.
Gothic church interiors in Vienna
The interior provides another opportunity for studying different periods of Gothic. The most striking element is the way in which the narrow nave suddenly opens, off-axis, to the wide choir. This is usually inaccessible except on Sundays, but an effort should be made to walk in it, to dispel the intimate but almost cramped feeling one gets in the a Few Gothic churches anywhere in Central Europe offers an atmosphere of repose. Much of the glass is medieval; an extraordinary survival for Vienna, but its height precludes any chance of appreciating it except in the bright hours of the early morning. An audio guide, not usually to be recommended, is in this church an insight not so much into the history of the church as into the mentality of post-war Vienna. The slow, lugubrious, distinguished, charming but utterly bored voice evokes some penniless aristocrat of the 1950S resorting unwillingly to earning her keep by trading old linguistic skills.
From the Salvatorgasse, where there is a small chapel with a 1520 portal whose over-restored interior must be entered from the Wipp¬lingerstrasse, there runs the small lane known as Stoss in Himmel. The narrow but busy Wipplingerstrasse beyond it has two farrades which demand attention. First is the restored but still impressive farcade of Fischer von Erlach's Bohemian chancery, with an elaborate crowning portal. Then, standing opposite this, in the former Town Hall (Altes Rathaus), a dignified building of which the oldest part dates back to the fourteenth century. By a lateral wall in the court is the Andromeda fountain (1741), the last and most beautiful work of Raphael Donner.
The Minorites' church's interior, entered from the west door, is bleak and white like many Viennese churches, but it contains a unique, for Austria, piece of Rococo Gothic in its high altar, again by the ubiquitous Hohenburg. A chapel to the left of this pays tribute to the many Italians who once lived under the Habsburg monarchy, and the church today is still the Italian church in the city.
The Abraham and Sancta Clara Gasse leads from the Palais Liechten stein to the Bankgasse, where the Hungarian embassy is housed in an impressive late-eighteenth-century palace. To its right is the Palais Batthany, probably designed by Fischer von Erlach, but uninteresting save for the rather heavy portal.
The rather down-at-heel palais opposite in the Herrengasse is the former property, of the Harrach family, who, like the Batthanys, Dietrichsteins and Liechtensteins, all held important positions at the Austrian court, e.ach family having the right to be part of this most exclusive club by virtue of the sixteen quarterings their arms displayed. For some years now the Harrach Palais has stood empty, a sad reminder of the former glory of the Herrengasse.
The Palais Porcia Vienna
At the end of the Herrengasse, the Palais Porcia (built in 1546) contains a delightful courtyard with blind arcades, which even the worst excesses of modern Austrian bad taste, such as ugly lamps, have failed to destroy. Next door stands the piece de resistance of the entire street, the Palais Kinsky. Built by Hildebrandt in 1712 for Count Daun, it has a rich facade and a spectacular staircase (apply to the porter; the ability to speak Serbo-Croat is useful). The narrowness of the space available for Hildebrandt in no way cramped his style,as the magnificent stone panels of the balustrade still indicate. Once it was possible to eat delicious goulash in the former palace stables, where a restaurant thrived under pictures of Herzog and other horses. It is now closed, but the nearby Cafe Central makes a suitable end to a day's sightseeing.
Off the beaten track in Vienna
Off the well-trodden paths of the Herrengasse, Graben and Kohlmarkt, there are less well-known corners of Vienna which seem to have remained unchanged for decades and even at the height of summer afford refuge from the crowds of sightseers.
Opposite the west end of St Stephen's Cathedral runs the Jaso-mirgottstrasse. 'Jasomirgott' ('So help me God'), a common phrase in Vienna, was the nickname bestowed on Heinrich II (1141-77), the first Habsburg to establish his capital in Vienna, because of his fondness for this particular oath. It was during his rule that Austria was given the special status of a hereditary Duchy within the Holy Roman Empire.
At the end of this street stands a picturesque eighteenth-century building. By contrast, a turning to the right leads into Brandstiitte, where can be seen one of the most extraordinary pre-First World War con¬structions in Vienna: the Zacherlhaus by JosefPlecnik (1872-1956). The large metal angel fixed to the facade was long dubbed by the Viennese the patron saint of cockroach assassins, as the house used to be the headquarters of a company dedicated to the production of D.D.T. Some eighty years after it was erected, in 1907, the building still has a startling modernity about it.
The Tuchlauben which leads off to the left has some interesting houses, too, notably a Neo -Classical chemist's and the early eighteenth ¬century Hochholzerhof to its right. The Steindlgasse between them weaves its way to the least changed quarters of the city. The Gosser¬bierklinik offers appetizing Austrian cuisine and is a suitable halting post for lunch. The nearby Kurrentgasse contains a more sophisticated restaurant. The Steindlgasse eventually leads to the picturesque Schulhof, where the Vienna clock museum is well worth at least a cursory inspection. To our left is the Gothic choir of the church Am Hof. We should bear this medieval exterior in mind when we later turn the corner and go inside. The palais at NO.4 Schulhof is the final jewel in the square, although its courtyard is a disappointment after the rich decoration of the mellow seventeenth-century facade, which is the very finest early Baroque.
The Am Hof Square Vienna
An arch to the left leads to the square Am Hof (literally 'At the Court'), so called because it was here that Jasomirgott established his court when he made Vienna his capital. The square, like so many in Vienna, has suffered the ravages of cars but it remains a pleasant space bounded to the left by the Baroque church and to the right in the opposite corner by the sixteenth-century arsenal, now the headquarters of the Fire Brigade.
The church Am Hof, with its early seventeenth-century Baroque facade pushing out into the square, is a not particularly convincing attempt at Roman Baroque spatial effects as practised by Borromini. The interior has a hopelessly cluttered and tasteless nave dating from the first half of the seventeenth century, although the choir, with its striking coffering so unexpected after the very Gothic exterior is rather more successful. The church today is the city shrine of the Croat population of Vienna and on Sundays is crowded with happy, devout Balkan types.
The Vienna cellars
On the same side of the square, at No. 12, is the Urbanikeller. No other part of the city gives a better impression of the seventeenth-century cellars that lie underneath most of the old city than this unpretentious restaurant. To step down its wooden stairs is to enter another world and to understand why the besieging Turks in 1683 set so much store by mining underneath the city's fortifications. An entry forced here, if successful, would have had dire consequences for the future of the city.
At the centre of the square stands a monument to the Virgin Mary, erected in 1667 by Kaiser Leopold I. The quaint putti contest, albeit with little obvious commitment, the evils of war, hunger and the plague.
From this square we can move back towards the town centre to the left and perhaps stop for a quick bite at the excellent Jugendstil Black Camel, the only bar and restaurant which offers Italian-style standing service for those in need of a quick bite. But to the right, past the Austrian flag factory, there is another interesting square, the Freyung.
The Benedictine Church Vienna
The uninspired church here is the Benedictine Schottenkirche (1638-48), named after its first monks, who were of Celtic origin and were referred to as Scots, although it seems more likely that they were Irish. In any event they were Benedictines whom Heinrich Jasomirgott, impressed by what he had heard of this order's piety, decided to summon to Austria in 1150. But within a year of their arrival, these monks considerably rumed the feathers of their Viennese hosts. According to a contemporary account, 'they stuck obstinately to their language and quarrelled constantly with the inhabitants'. They were reported to be trading in furs, initiating wild dances (reels?) and, most scandalously of all, starting 'games of ball'.
This was the last straw. Duke Albrecht V told the monks that their monastery would no longer be restricted to Celts. Abbot Thomas's response to this decree manifested a robust disrespect, unashamedly Irish, for the authorities. He tersely announced that if monks of any other nationality entered the building, he and his fellow Hibernians would strangle them. Some German Benedictines who did attempt to enter were given a fierce drubbing. But by 1432 the Germans had succeeded in expelling these unwelcome guests and setting up a model, if less boisterous, monastery.
The courtyard today, with its austere Neo-Classicism, shows little sign of such disturbances, and the fine library (apply to the Abbot) has a tranquillity which is still completely monastic. A statue in the courtyard commemorates Jasomirgott, while a second courtyard offers a calm if inaccessible area of green. For a glimpse of anything dating from the turbulent years of Abbot Thomas we must enter the Schotten church.
This is the French church of the city and contains several monuments to French families who either fought for or served under the Habsburgs. The Baroque decoration of the interior, the work of A. Allio, is less fussy than that of the Am Hof church and there are some fine monu¬ments, especially a Neo-Classical black marble one on the right, to balance this bland decor. The last altar on the left contains the oldest statue of a Madonna in Vienna, while the passage beyond the choir has some masonry and fragments of fresco which are contemporary with Abbot Thomas's rowdy monks. In the crypt below lies Jasomirgott himself, in a humble tomb one cannot help feeling Heinrich would have approved of.
Leaving the church, there is another characteristic coffee house at the Cafe Haag in the courtyard (Schottenhof). Back past the heavy monument on the church's farrade is a nineteenth-century depiction {'¬Jasomirgott's medieval virtues, and passing the fragrant herb chemist', the street soon leads to the Palais Schon born, another precious creation of Fischer von Erlach. It no longer boasts its fine private painting collection, but the rooms on the first floor, now belonging to the Mexican embassy, are decorated in the best Viennese Rococo.
At Renngasse No. 12 there is a charming courtyard with a commemorative medallion to Kaiser Franz Josef and his wife, Elizabeth. Ahead, the Wipplingerstrasse leads to the left, to the Vienna Stock Exchange, a handsome building by Theophil Hansen, the architect of ¬the Vienna Parliament, as quiet as a sepulchre, thanks to Austria socialism. The road to the right leads to the curious High Bridge, a remarkable testament to the dramatic differences i between the innermost fortifications and the outer ring which would have fallen away from us to our left. A plaque above the art nouveau metalwork of the bridge relates that this was the eastern gate into the city during the days of the Babenbergs.
The Schwertgasse to the left leads to another legacy of medieval time in Passauer Square, the church of Maria am Gestade. The church's name, meaning literally 'On the Steps', refers to the fact that the stairs at the west end once led against the Danube, which ran here until it was rerouted in the 1890S b Otto Wagner. Fishermen deposited their catches here, and for this reason the church is the patron of all those concerned with the sea. Its magniflcent facade was constructed between 1394 and 1427 after the plans of Michael Weinwurm.
Gothic church interiors in Vienna
The interior provides another opportunity for studying different periods of Gothic. The most striking element is the way in which the narrow nave suddenly opens, off-axis, to the wide choir. This is usually inaccessible except on Sundays, but an effort should be made to walk in it, to dispel the intimate but almost cramped feeling one gets in the a Few Gothic churches anywhere in Central Europe offers an atmosphere of repose. Much of the glass is medieval; an extraordinary survival for Vienna, but its height precludes any chance of appreciating it except in the bright hours of the early morning. An audio guide, not usually to be recommended, is in this church an insight not so much into the history of the church as into the mentality of post-war Vienna. The slow, lugubrious, distinguished, charming but utterly bored voice evokes some penniless aristocrat of the 1950S resorting unwillingly to earning her keep by trading old linguistic skills.
From the Salvatorgasse, where there is a small chapel with a 1520 portal whose over-restored interior must be entered from the Wipp¬lingerstrasse, there runs the small lane known as Stoss in Himmel. The narrow but busy Wipplingerstrasse beyond it has two farrades which demand attention. First is the restored but still impressive farcade of Fischer von Erlach's Bohemian chancery, with an elaborate crowning portal. Then, standing opposite this, in the former Town Hall (Altes Rathaus), a dignified building of which the oldest part dates back to the fourteenth century. By a lateral wall in the court is the Andromeda fountain (1741), the last and most beautiful work of Raphael Donner.
Labels: Benedictine Church Vienna, Gothic church interiors in Vienna
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