St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
St. Stephen's Cathedral (German: Stephansdom) in Vienna, Austria, is the seat of a Roman Catholic Archbishop, a beloved symbol of Vienna, and the site of many important events in Austria's national life.
[edit] History
St. Stephen's Cathedral was first built as a parish church of the Diocese of Passau in 1147 and rebuilt and enlarged over the centuries, with major new work concluding in 1511, although repair and restoration have continued from the beginning to the present day.
It was previously thought that the church had been built in an open field outside the city walls; but excavations for a long-awaited heating system during 2000 revealed graves that were carbon-dated to the fourth century, 8 feet (2.5 meters) below the surface. The 430 skeletons were then moved to the catacombs. Thousands of others must have been buried in the ancient cemetery of this neighbourhood, starting in Roman times; and this, instead of the Ruprechtskirche, may be the oldest church site in Vienna.
The first recorded church here was founded in 1137, by Duke Leopold IV in a contract with Reginmar, Bishop of Passau. The church was dedicated to St. Stephen, the patron of the bishop's cathedral in Passau, and is oriented toward the sunrise on his feast day (26 December) in the year its construction began. The first church building was built in the Romanesque style starting in 1137 and consecrated ten years later. It was extended westward from 1230 to 1245. The present west wall and Roman towers date from 1237.
After a great fire in the city in 1258, a larger replacement structure, also Romanesque and reusing the Roman towers, was consecrated, on 23 April 1263, an anniversary highlighted each year by a rare ringing of the Pummerin bell for three minutes in the evening.
In 1304, Emperor Albert I ordered construction of a Gothic three-naved choir, further east of the church and wide enough to meet the tips of the old transepts. Work continued under his son Duke Albert II; this latest work was consecrated in 1340, on the 77th anniversary of the previous consecration. The motif of the north nave furnishings was St. Mary; the middle nave was for St. Stephen and All the Saints; and the Apostles were honoured in the south nave. This part of the present cathedral, east of the present stubby transepts, is called the Albertine Choir.
On 7 April 1359 Albert II's son Duke Rudolf IV (who is called "the founder") laid the cornerstone in the vicinity of the present south tower for a Gothic extension of Albert's choir westward to encapsulate the existing second church. That old church was then removed from the embrace of the new one in 1430 as work around it progressed.
In 1433 the south tower was finished. Vaulting of the nave began in 1446 and the nave was completed in 1474. In 1450 the foundation was laid for the north tower, but work on it was abandoned in 1511.
Although it was merely a parish church, in 1365 Rudolf IV presumptuously established a chapter of canons here, such as a cathedral would have. It was a long-held desire of Vienna, with its rising importance, to become its own diocese. Despite long-standing resistance by the bishops of Passau who did not want to lose control of the area, in 1469 Emperor Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor prevailed upon Pope Paul II to grant Vienna its own bishop (appointed then and thereafter by the emperor) and so the Stephansdom became a cathedral. (During the reign of Emperor Karl VI, the see was elevated to an archbishopric in 1722 by Pope Innocent XIII.)
St. Stephen's Cathedral was saved from intentional destruction at the hands of retreating German forces during World War II, when Captain Gerhard Klinkicht disregarded orders from the city commandant, Sepp Dietrich, to "fire a hundred shells and leave it in just debris and ashes."
One of the fires set by civilian plunderers of nearby shops when Russian troops entered the city was carried by the wind to the cathedral, severely damaging it on 12 April 1945 as the roof collapsed. Fortunately, protective brick shells had been built around the pulpit, Frederick III's tomb, and other treasures, so that damage to the most valuable artworks was minimized. Unfortunately, the beautifully carved Rollinger choir stalls from 1487 were burned. Rebuilding began immediately, with a limited reopening on 12 December 1948 and a full reopening on 23 April 1952.
[edit] Exterior
The Romanesque and gothic cathedral stands in the Stephansplatz, an extension of the main shopping street, the Kärtnerstraße, in the heart of Vienna.
The Stephansdom is 107 meters (350 feet) long and 34 meters (112 feet) wide, and built of limestone.
The soot accumulated over centuries has been removed in recent years, changing its colour from black to white.
The cathedral is best viewed from the southwest.
[edit] Towers
St. Stephen's Cathedral's massive south tower (at location ST on the Plan below) is the dominant feature of the Vienna skyline at 136 meters (445 feet) and is affectionately called Steffl (a German diminutive form of Stephen) by the Viennese. It served as the main observation and command post for the defence of the walled city during the Siege of Vienna in 1529 and again during the second siege in 1683. It is as much the most recognised symbol of Vienna as the Eiffel Tower is of Paris. Its construction took 65 years to complete, from 1368 to 1433, and it contains an apartment for the watchmen who, for centuries (ending in 1955), manned the tower during the night to ring its bells if they spotted a fire. The tip of the tower has the double eagle imperial emblem with the Habsburg-Lorraine coat of arms on its chest, surmounted by the double-armed apostolic cross symbolic of the emperors' style Apostolic Majesty as kings of Hungary.
The north tower (at location NT), planned as a twin to the south tower, has not been completed and is only half as tall, at 68 meters (223 feet). It was given a temporary cap that the Viennese call the "water tower top" when its construction paused in 1511. Construction has not yet resumed.
The main entrance is called the Giant's Door (Riesentor) from the bone of a mastodon that once hung over it. The tympanum above the entrance depicts Christ Pantocrator, flanked by two winged angels.
On the left and on the right of the Giant's Door are the two Roman towers (at locations RT on the Plan below) which are about 65 meters (215 feet) tall. They are called "Roman" (heidnischen in old Viennese dialect) because they were built from rubble of structures built by the Romans during their occupation of the city site. Square at their bases, and octagonal when they rise above the roof, these Heidentürme housed bells, and although the south Roman tower lost its bells during World War II, the north one is still a working bell tower.
Along with the Giant's Door, the Roman Towers are the oldest parts of the church.
[edit] Roof
A glory of St. Stephen's Cathedral is its ornately patterned, richly coloured roof, 110 meters (361 feet) long, and covered by 230,000 glazed tiles. Above the choir on the south side of the building the tiles form a mosaic of the double-headed eagle that is symbolic of the empire ruled from Vienna by the Habsburg dynasty. On the north side the coats of arms of the City of Vienna and of the Republic of Austria are depicted. In 1945, fire caused by World War II damage to nearby buildings leapt to the north tower of the cathedral and went on to destroy the wooden framework of the roof. Replicating the original bracing for so large a roof (it rises 38 meters above the top of the walls) would have required an entire square kilometre of forest, so over 600 metric tons of steel bracing were used instead. The roof is so steep that it is sufficiently cleaned by the rain alone and is never covered by snow.
[edit] Bells
St. Stephen's Cathedral has 23 bells.
The largest is officially named for St. Mary, but usually called Pummerin ("Boomer") and hangs in the north tower. At 20,130 kilograms (44,380 pounds), it is the largest in Austria and the second largest swinging bell in Europe (after the 23,500-kilogram (51,800-pound) Peter in Cologne Cathedral). Originally cast in 1711 from cannons captured from the Muslim invaders, it was recast (partly from its original metal) in 1951 after crashing onto the floor when its wooden cradle burned during the 1945 fire. The new bell has a diameter of 3.14 metres (9.6 feet) and was a gift from the province of Upper Austria. It sounds on only a few special occasions each year, including the arrival of the new year. There are three other bells hanging in this tower, but they are older and no longer used.
A peal of eleven electrically operated bells, cast in 1960, hangs in the soaring south tower. Replacements for other ancient bells also lost in the 1945 fire, they are used during Masses at the cathedral: four are used for an ordinary Mass; the quantity increases to as many as ten for a major holiday Mass; and the eleventh and largest is added when the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna himself is present. From the largest to the smallest, they are named the St. Stephen (5,700 kg); St. Leopold (2,300 kg); St. Christopher (1,350 kg); St. Leonhard (950 kg); St. Josef (700 kg); St. Peter Canisius (400 kg); St. Pius X (280 kg); All Saints (200 kg); St. Clement Maria Hofbauer (120 kg); St. Michael (60 kg); and St. Tarsicius (35 kg). Also in this tallest tower are the Primglocke (recast in 1772) and the Uhrschälle (cast in 1449), which mark the passing of the hours.
The north Roman tower contains six bells, five of which were cast in 1772, that ring for evening prayers and toll for funerals. They are working bells of the cathedral and their names usually recall their original uses: Feuerin ("fire alarm" but now used as a call to evening prayers) cast in 1859; Kantnerin (calling the cantors (musicians) to Mass); Feringerin (used for High Mass on Sundays); Bieringerin ("beer ringer" for last call at taverns); Poor Souls (the funeral bell); and Churpötsch (donated by the local curia in honor of the Maria Pötsch icon in the cathedral).
The 1945 fire destroyed the bells that hung in the south Roman tower.
It is said that the composer Ludwig van Beethoven discovered the totality of his deafness when he saw birds flying out of the bell tower as a result of the bells' tolling but couldn't hear the bells.
[edit] Fixtures
Along the outside walls of the cathedral can be seen
- two iron bars, to the north of the main entrance, that were official Viennese ell length standards for verifying the measure of different types of cloth sold during the middle ages. Each city had its own set of measures, and the public availability of these standards allowed visiting merchants to comply with the local regulations.
- a memorial tablet (near location SJC on the Plan below) recounting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's relationship with the cathedral, including the fact that he had been appointed an adjunct music director here shortly before his death. This was his parish church when he lived at the "Figaro House" and he was married here, two of his children were baptised here, and his funeral was held in the Chapel of the Cross (at location PES) inside. It is often mistakenly stated that Mozart died poor and so was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. The truth is that under burial laws decreed in 1784, all — rich or poor — were required to be buried unembalmed and without coffins in communal graves. These laws were still in effect when Mozart died in 1791.
- the pulpit (now outdoors at location SJC) from which St. John Capistrano preached a crusade in 1454 to hold back Muslim invasions of Christian Europe. (The Muslims invaded in 1529 and again in 1683, but were turned back from Europe both times by the resistance of Vienna to the sieges it endured.) The 18th century Baroque statue shows St. Francis under an extravagant sunburst, trampling on a beaten Turk. This was the original cathedral's main pulpit inside until it was replaced by Pilgram's pulpit in 1515.
- a figure (at location CT) affectionately known to the Viennese as "Christ with a toothache," from the agonized expression of his face.
- various other memorials, from the time the area outside the cathedral was a cemetery.
- a recently-restored 15th century sundial, on a flying buttress at the southwest corner (location S).
[edit] Interior
[edit] Altars
There are 18 altars in the main part of the church, and more in the various chapels. The High Altar and the Wiener Neustädt Altar are the most famous.
[edit] High Altar [HA]
The first focal point of any visitor is the distant High Altar, built over seven years from 1641 to 1647 as part of the first refurbishment of the cathedral in the baroque style. The altar was built by the Tobias Pock at the direction of Vienna's Bishop Philipp Friedrich Graf Breuner with marble from Poland, Styria and Tyrol.
The altarpiece shows the stoning of St. Stephen, this church's patron. It is framed by figures of the patron saints of the surrounding areas — Saints Leopold, Florian, Sebastian and Rochus — and surmounted with a statute of St. Mary which draws the beholder's eye to a glimpse of heaven where Christ waits for Stephen (the first martyr) to ascend from below.
[edit] Wiener Neustädter Altar [WNA]
This altar at the head of the north nave was made in 1447 on the orders of Emperor Frederick III, whose tomb is opposite it, at the head of the south nave. On the predella is his famous A.E.I.O.U. device.
Frederick ordered it for the Cistercian Viktring Abbey (near Klagenfurt) where it remained until the abbey was closed in 1786 as part of Emperor Joseph II's anti-clerical reforms. It was then sent to the Cistercian monastery of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (founded by Emperor Frederick III) in the city of Wiener Neustadt, and finally sold in 1885 to St. Stephen's Cathedral when the Wiener Neustadt monastery was closed after merging with Heiligenkreuz Abbey.
A project to restore the altar was begun on the 100th anniversary, in 1985, and, primarily because of the large surface area (100 square meters) involved, took 20 years, 10 art restorers, 40,000 man-hours, and €1.3 million to complete.
The altarpiece is composed of two triptychs, the upper being four times taller than the lower one. When the lower panels are opened, the gothic grate of the former reliquary depot above the altar is revealed.
On weekdays, the four panels are closed and display a drab painted scene involving 72 saints. On Sundays, the panels are opened showing gilded wooden figures depicting events in the life of the Virgin Mary.
[edit] Maria Pócs (Maria Pötsch) Icon [MP]
This Byzantine style icon of St. Mary with the child Jesus was originally in the Uniate church in the Hungarian town of Pócs (pronounced Poach), from which this Marian icon takes its name. After two miraculous incidents in 1696 of the mother in the picture shedding real tears, Emperor Leopold I, king of Hungary, ordered it brought to St. Stephen's Cathedral, where it would safe from the French-supported Muslim armies that still controlled much of Hungary. Upon its arrival after a triumphal 5-month journey in 1697, Empress Eleonora Magdalena commissioned the splendid Rosa Mystica oklad and framework (now one of several) for it, and the Emperor personally ordered the icon placed near the High Altar in the front of the church, where it stood prominently from 1697 until 1945. Since then, it has been in a different framework, above an altar under a medieval stone baldachin near the southwest corner of the nave — where the many burning candles indicate the extent of its veneration, especially by Hungarians.
The 20 by 28-inch icon was commissioned in 1676 from painter Istvan Papp by Laszlo Csigri upon his release as a prisoner of war from the Turks who were invading Hungary at the time. Perhaps Csigri was unable to pay the 6-ducat fee, because the icon was bought by Laszlo Hurta who donated it to the church in Pócs.
The picture shows the mother pointing to the child (signifying he is the way), and the child holds a three-stemmed rose (symbolizing the holy trinity) and wears a prescient cross from his neck.
Since its arrival the picture has not been seen to weep again (perhaps because it enjoys the Gemütlichkeit of Vienna) but other miracles and answered prayers have been attributed to it, including Prince Eugene of Savoy's victory over the Turks at Zenta a few weeks after the icon's installation in the Stephandom.
The residents of Pócs wanted their holy miracle-working painting returned, but the emperor sent them a copy instead. Since then, the copy has been reported to weep real tears and work miracles, so the village changed its name from merely Pócs to Máriapócs and has become an important pilgrimage site.
[edit] Pulpit [P]
A masterwork of late gothic sculpture is the stone pulpit. Long attributed to Anton Pilgram, today Niclaes Gerhaert van Leyden is thought more likely to be the carver. So that the local language sermon could be better heard by the worshipers in the days before microphones and loud speakers, the pulpit stands against a pillar out in the nave, instead of in the chancel at the front of the church.
The sides of the pulpit erupt like stylized petals from the stem supporting it. On those gothic petals are relief portraits of the four original Doctors of the Church (St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great and St. Jerome), each of them in one of four different temperaments and in one of four different stages of life.
The handrail of the stairway curving its way around the pillar from ground level to the pulpit has fantastic decorations of toads and lizards biting each other, symbolizing the fight of good against evil. At the top of the stairs, a stone puppy protects the preacher from intruders.
Beneath the stairs is one of the most beloved symbols of the cathedral: a stone self-portrait of the unknown sculptor gawking (Ger. "gucken") out of a window (Ger. "fenster") and thus famously known as the Fenstergucker.
[edit] Chapels
There are several formal chapels in St. Stephen's Cathedral:
- St. Katherine's Chapel, in the base of the south tower, is the baptismal chapel. The 14-sided baptismal font was completed in 1481, and its cover was formerly the sound board above the famed pulpit in the main church. Its marble base shows the four Evangelists, while the niches of the basin feature the twelve apostles, Christ and St. Stephan.
- St. Barbara's Chapel, in the base of the north tower, is used for meditation and prayer.
- St. Eligius's Chapel, in the southeast corner, is open for prayer. The altar is dedicated to St. Valentine whose body (one of three, held by various churches) is in another chapel, upstairs.
- St. Bartholomew's Chapel, above St. Eligius' Chapel, has recently been restored.
- The Chapel of the Cross [PES] , in the northeast corner, contains the burial place of Prince Eugene of Savoy in the vault containing 3 coffins and a heart urn, under a massive stone slab with iron rings. It is also where the funeral of Mozart was held on 6 December 1791. The beard on the crucified Christ above the altar is of real hair. The chapel is not open to the public.
- St. Valentine's Chapel, above the Chapel of the Cross, is the current depository of the hundreds of relics belonging to the Stephansdom, including a piece of the tablecloth from the Last Supper. A large chest holds the bones of St. Valentine. They were moved here about a century ago, from what is now the Chapter House to the south of the High Altar.
[edit] Tombs
It has always been an honour to be buried inside a church, thus close to the physical presence of the saints whose relics are preserved there. Those less honoured were buried near (but outside) the church. Since its earliest days, St. Stephen's Cathedral has been surrounded by cemeteries dating back to Roman times, and has sheltered the bodies of notables and commoners.
[edit] Ground Floor
In the cathedral may be seen the tombs of
- Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, (21 September 1415 - 19 August 1493) [Fr3] under whose reign Vienna obtained its own bishop. His motto "A.E.I.O.U." became synonymous with Austria. Constructed over a span of 45 years, starting 25 years before the emperor's death, this impressive sarcophagus is made of the unusually dense red marble-like stone found at the Adnet quarry. Carved by Niclaes Gerhaert van Leyden, the tomb lid shows Emperor Frederick in his coronation regalia surrounded by the coats of arms of all of his dominions. The body of the tomb has 240 statues and is a glory of medieval sculptural art. It is prominent in the Apostles' Choir in the southeast corner of the cathedral. Emperor Frederick was 77 when he died, and his leg that had been amputated shortly before his death was buried here with him.
- Prince Eugene of Savoy, (16 October 1663 – 24 April 1736) [PES] commander of the Imperial forces during the War of the Spanish Succession, and others to repel Muslim invasions. His vault is in the large chapel sometimes named for him, in the northwest corner of the cathedral. That chapel has several other names, among them Chapel of The Cross.
[edit] Catacombs
When the charnel house and eight cemeteries against St. Stephen's Cathedral's side and back walls were closed due to an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1735, the bones within them were moved to the catacombs below the church. Burials directly in the catacombs occurred until 1783, when a new law forbade most burials within the city. The remains of over 11,000 persons are in the catacombs (which may be toured).
[edit] Bishops Crypt
The most recent interment in this crypt completed in 1952) under the south choir was that of 98-year-old Cardinal Franz König in 2004.
[edit] Canons Crypt
Provosts of the cathedral are buried here. Other members of the cathedral chapter are usually now buried in a special section at the Zentralfriedhof.
[edit] Ducal Crypt
- For more details on this topic, see Ducal Crypt (Vienna).
A crypt under the chancel holds 78 bronze containers with the bodies, hearts, or viscera of 72 members of the Habsburg dynasty. Before his death in 1365, Duke Rudolf IV had ordered such a crypt to be built for his remains in the new cathedral he commissioned. By 1754 the small rectangular chamber was overcrowded with 12 sarcophagi and 39 urns, so the area was expanded with an oval chamber being added adjacent to the east end of the rectangular one. In 1956 the two chambers were renovated and their contents were rearranged. The sarcophagi of Duke Rudolf IV and his wife were placed upon a pedestal and the 62 urns containing organs were moved from the two rows of shelves around the new chamber to cabinets in the original one.
[edit] Conservation and restoration
Preservation and repair of the fabric of the medieval cathedral has been a continuous process at St. Stephen's Cathedral since its original construction in 1147.
The porous limestone is subject to weathering, but coating it with a sealer like silicone would simply trap moisture inside the stone and cause it to crack faster when the water freezes. The permanent Dombauhütte (Construction Department) uses the latest scientific techniques (including laser cleaning of delicate features on stonework), and is investigating a process that would impregnate the cavities within the stone with something that would keep water from having a place to infiltrate.
The most visible current repair project is a multi-year renovation of the tall south tower, for which scaffolding has been installed. Fees from advertising on the netting around the scaffolding were defraying some of the costs of the work, but the concept of such advertising was controversial and has been discontinued.
Systematic cleaning of the interior is gradually proceeding around the walls, and an outdoor relief of Christ in Gethsemane is being restored.
Recently completed is a giant project for which visitors and worshipers in St. Stephen's Cathedral had been waiting since 1147: better heating of the church during the winter. Previous systems, including fireplaces, just deposited soot and grease on the artwork, but the new system uses apparatus in many different locations so that there is little moving airflow to carry damaging particles. The church is now heated to around 10° C. (50° F.).
Some of the architectural drawings date from the middle ages and are on paper 15 feet long and too fragile to handle. Laser measurements of the ancient cathedral have now been made so that a digital 3-dimensional virtual model of the cathedral now exists in its computers, and detailed modern plans can be output at will. When weathered stonework needs to be repaired or replaced, the computerized system can create life-sized models to guide the nine full-time stonemasons on staff in the on-site workshops against the north wall of the cathedral.
[edit] Trivia
- St. Stephen's Cathedral is depicted in a small oval on the packaging of the Manner-Schnitten wafer treat. The Roman Catholic church allowed the Manner company to use the Cathedral as their logo; in return the company is paying the wages of one stone mason doing repair work on the Cathedral.
- The funeral of the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was held in St. Stephen's Cathedral as well as his marriage.
- St. Stephen's Cathedral is featured on the Austrian 10 cent Euro coins.
- In 1862, at the age of 14, Guido von List visited, with his farther, the catacombs beneath Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna) which made a deep impression upom him at which he declared that when he is older he would build a temple to Wotan. List regarded the catacombs as a pagan shrine. As an adult he claimed he had then sworn to build a temple to Wotan when he grew up.
[edit] References
- (German) Official Website of St. Stephen's Cathedral
- (German) … of the Museum
- (German) … of the Permanent Construction Office
- (German) … of the Archdiocese of Vienna
- (German) … of the parish
- (German) About the Bells
- Digital European Cathedral Archives
- (German) Literaturkritik zur Baugeschichte des wiener Stephandomes (2002)
- (German) Der Stephansplatz im Mittelalter (2003)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- St. Stephen's Cathedral Vienna - See a video of the cathedral!
- Satellite Photo
