August 5th

Roof of Stephansdom with Imperial symbol of the Hapsburgs

View from atop Stephansdom

Stephansdom by night

Beethoven's Resting place

Jewish Burial grounds

Today after class, a group of us went to St Stephen’s cathedral, also known as Stephansdom. The church was an astounding piece of architecture that utilizes both the Romanesque and Gothic styles. You can see the Romanesque style reflected in the massive Giant’s Door, that has a massive pointed archway and the two smaller towers of the cathedral. According to Steven Beller in his book entitled A Concise history of Austria, the construction of the cathedral was made possible by inceasing revenue from trade. Austria in 1192 acquired the province of Styria, traded frequently with Venetian contacts, and had one of the richest iron mines in Erzberg.  Under the direction of Rudolf IV, construction of St. Stephen’s began in 1230 on top a site in Stephansplatz where other earlier churches once stood. This put this in the center of the city. The south tower, which takes 342 steps to get to, the top, stands at 445 feet tall (136 meters) and offered me some fantastic views of surrounding Vienna. One of the most interesting aspects of Saint Stephens Cathedral for me however, was the multi-colored roof. The impressive design and the striking Imperial Eagle on the roof astounded me with its intricate detail. Later on in the day it was really impressive to walk through the graveyard and see the rich sculptures that adorned the final resting places of prominent Viennese. To be standing in front of Beethoven’s grave was quite amazing. This was a man who composed some of the most famous works of music and I was able to go and pay my respects to him. His tombstone was a rich white marble obelisk, adorned with gold trim and was quite beautiful as far as grave markers go. You have the magnificence of the marble gravestones in much of the graveyard, however when one enters into the Jewish section of the graveyard, it looks unattended and forgotten. Most of the grave stones are dilapidated, and are overgrown with greenery. This seems to reflect the rampant anti-semitsim that was wide spread through Europe from the early 20th century through to the period of Nazi occupation that saw the attempted destruction of the Jewish population in Europe. Although i am not Jewish, I laid some pebbles and small stones on the grave-markers to pay my respects to those who lie in rest within that graveyard.