Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tally disabled and therefore incapable of knowingly killing himself and his girl).
Kaiserin
Elisabeth (1837-1898), a.k.a.
Sisi,
always gets the “Most Flowers” award.
In front of those three are the two most recent Habsburg tombs.
Empress Zita
was laid
to rest here in 1989, followed by her son,
Karl Ludwig,
in 2007. The funeral procession for
Karl, the fourth son of the last Austrian emperor, was probably the last such Old Regime
event in European history. The monarchy died hard in Austria. Today there are about 700
living Habsburg royals, mostly living in exile. When they die, they get buried in their coun-
tries of exile.
Body parts and ornate tombs aside, the real legacy of the Habsburgs is the magnificence
of this city. Step outside. Pan up. Watch the clouds glide by the ornate gables of Vienna.
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St. Michael's Church Crypt (Michaelerkirche)
St. Michael's Church, which faces the Hofburg on Michaelerplatz, offers a striking contrast
to the imperial crypt. Regular tours take visitors underground to see a typical church
crypt—filled with the rotting wooden coffins of well-to-do commoners.
Cost and Hours:
€5 for 45-minute tour, Mon-Sat at 11:00 and 13:30, mostly in German
but with enough English, wait at the sign that advertises the tour at the church entrance and
pay the guide directly.
VisitingtheCrypt:
Climbingbelowthechurch,you'llseeaboutahundred18th-century
coffins and stand on three feet of debris, surrounded by niches filled with stacked lumber
from decayed coffins and countless bones. You'll meet a 1769 mummy in lederhosen and a
wig,alongwithawomanwhoisclutchingacrossandhasflowerspaintedonherhighheels.
You'll learn about death in those times—from how the wealthy didn't want to end up in
standard shallow graves, instead paying to be laid to rest below the church, to how, in 1780,
the enlightened emperor Josef II ended the practice of cemetery burials in cities but allowed
therichtobecomethestinkingrichincryptsunderchurches.You'llalsodiscoverwhymany
wereburiedwiththeirchinstrappedshut(becausewhenthemusclesrot,yourjawfallsopen
and you get that ghostly skeleton look that nobody wants).
St. Michael's Church itself has an interesting history. In 1791, a few days after Mozart's
death, his
Requiem
was performed here for the first time. (See the small monument just in-
side the door on the right.) In the rear of the nave, to the right as you enter, is a small me-
morialtoAustrianvictimsoftheconcentrationcampatDachau.Thecrosswasmadein1945
at Dachau by newly freed inmates and is dedicated to Austrian martyrs.
In the 19th century, the Habsburgs planned to create a series of triumphal arches spanning
the Ringstrasse to connect their museum buildings and the Hofburg Palace in an awe-in-
