Since we only saw the last little bit of The Magic Flute, I am choosing to write about the church that my group visited in Vienna! My group went to the Augustine church and it was gothic but also mainly Neoclassical inside. I really liked going to this church, it was pretty different from the other ones we’ve gone to because it was very plain and extremely white. From the outside, I couldn’t even tell it was a church I almost walked right past it! My favorite part was probably the pyramid statue that was in honor of one of the princesses, I’m not sure which one. It looked really cool like a portal to the underground, I wanted to peek my head down there to see how far it went!
The Augustine church is important historically because it is one of the oldest and most famous churches in Vienna. There have been numerous weddings at the Augustine church for very famous people. Some people who got married there are; Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, Maria Theresa and Franz Stephan, Marie Louise and Napoleon Bonaparte, and Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. It is also important because the Habsburg rulers' hearts are kept in the church in silver urns. The rest of their bodies are in the Imperial crypt, but it is interesting that their hearts are kept in the church.
I think that the Augustine church contributes to Vienna’s status as a cultural capital because it is one of the oldest buildings in Vienna and it has been preserved well enough for people to still be able to come and visit. There is so much history that took place there and preserving the building shows that religion and tradition are important to Vienna. There is no charge for entering the church, and I think that was the same for many of the other churches so anybody has the ability to come and witness these grand buildings that have been in Vienna for centuries!
Thanks for posting about this Betsy, it was so interesting to learn about the Augustine Church! I didn't realize what a historical place it is, it truly has an extensive history behind it. I agree that preserving religion and tradition seem very important to Vienna. I think the dedication the citizens have to preserving their culture is one of the things that helps them cultivate a rich cultural capital!
ReplyDeleteI love that you wrote about the Augustine Church because it is a place I know close to nothing about! It is so cool how these historic churches are so open and free to the public with little to no monitoring. I think for a city to be considered a cultural capital, they need to want to share the art and culture found within the city. The church being open to the public is a perfect example of this. From what I've read in this post, it sounds like The Augustine Church is absolutely beautiful and iconic in the city of Vienna!
ReplyDeleteBetsy, I really liked your post about the Augustine Church. I didn’t realize so many famous people in history were married there! I also liked that you pointed out that it is a combination of Gothic and Neoclassical architecture. The fact that it is free to visit shows how important it is to Vienna to make these places of great religious history accessible to all people. That is another example of how Vienna is a great cultural capital of the world, where they maintain these buildings for so many years and allow people to come visit them from around the world.
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