The national symbol of Austria and the decoration of Vienna became the grandiose church of St. Stephen, a Catholic cathedral filled with wonderful relics and real works of art. Under it are no less famous catacombs, where the remains of all Austrian emperors lie, starting with the prince who built this magnificent temple, Rudolph VI, then seventy-two Habsburgs, Eugene of Savoy and many rectors of the cathedral. From either of the two towers a magnificent view of the ancient and beautiful city opens.
The symbol of Vienna
The construction of the cathedral began in the twelfth century, and today it is the largest Gothic building in Austria with a total height of 107 meters and with ascended towers by another 30. Visitors often climb the bell tower, having overcome three hundred and fifty steps. It’s worth it: the view from the bell room is simply magnificent. Yes, and those 23 bells of different sizes, which are one of the main attractions of the church of St. Stephen, the cathedral is decorated exclusively: the Pummerin alone is considered the largest bell in Western Europe. The roof is clearly visible from above, where the double-headed eagle and the coat of arms of Austria are laid out with bright tiles.
Inside the church, the design changed often, so over so many centuries, architecture has acquired signs of almost all trends and trends, up to the Baroque. Each guest of the city considers it not only his duty, but also his first duty to visit this pearl of architecture. Moreover, one day for inspection is clearly not enough. Because the temple of St. Stephen - a huge cathedral and literally on every square meter of its area containing a particular attraction.
Relics
The treasures of the cathedral are more than impressive: a huge number of valuable altars, side chapels, relics decorated with jewels and gold: arks, books, liturgical texts, robes. The sarcophagi are also impressive. The tombstone of Frederick III weighs, for example, eight tons. Prince Eugene rested in a separate chapel, decorated extremely whimsically. Considering that the first burial sites appeared here at the beginning of the twelfth century, one can trace the formation of traditions of both architecture and interior design decisions by the nature of burials.
Currently, the church of St. Stephen is a cathedral, the Vienna archbishop sits in it. The church was originally built in the center of the city in 1147, by the fifteenth century it had acquired its current borders, and the modern look only in the sixteenth century. The oldest buildings are in the Romanesque style, this can be seen on the wall of the cathedral, where the portal and two towers, which were later rebuilt in the Gothic style after the fire in 1258.
Architecture
In 1340, Alberta choirs in the three naves were built to the Romanesque church from the east (named after the two kings of Alberta - the First and Second), they have survived to this day in its original form. The northern nave was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the one in the middle - to St. Stephen and all the other saints, and the southern nave is dedicated to the twelve apostles. In 1359, Rudolph IV laid the foundation of a new Gothic temple, in its place now is the highest southern tower, the foundation of which is surprisingly solid, although very small - only one and a half meters. When climbing the south tower, you can see the oldest statue of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, which once served as a facade decoration. From here, from this bench, which is located next to the statue of St. Stephen, Count Sharchemberg monitored the Turks during the siege.
The North Tower was built over a hundred years, only in 1578 it was equipped with a beautiful dome in the Renaissance style. To the crowns of the earth, it still seems more like a water tower, although it is called Orlina, and the portal leading from it to the Women's Nave has the same name. After St. Stephen’s Cathedral became a cathedral, the sculptor Rollinger made carved choirs with a unique design, and in 1513 an organ was installed there. All interiors of those times were made, of course, in the Baroque style. In 1647, reconstruction began: a unique altar by Jacob and Pokka appeared, in 1700 two side altars were not inferior in beauty to the main one, two icons of the Virgin Mary were painted, which immediately became famous. The status of the temple was raised to the archbishop's 40 years after the victory over the Turks - in 1722.
War
During the bombing, St. Stephen's Cathedral was not damaged, and the offensive operation of the Soviet troops also did not harm him. However, the commandant of Vienna, General Sepp Dietrich, ordered Hitler's artillery to demolish the entire city center. Fortunately, this order was not executed. But misfortune came from where they did not wait: local residents - looters plundered all nearby shops and set them on fire, and the fire spread to the temple complex.
The consequences were terrible: the roof collapsed in many places, a huge bell collapsed into the North Tower and crashed, many of St. Stephen’s interiors in Vienna, even the Rollinger choirs, were almost completely destroyed. Chairs have survived and - thanks to brick sarcophagi - the most valuable relics.
The Cathedral was restored by volunteers, and this was only possible in 1960. In December 1948, a roof appeared over the main nave, and in April 1952 it was already possible to resume services. The second stage of restoration began in 1980, it continues to this day. Limestone walls and statues are being restored, of which there are a lot, and time is ruthless even to the hardest materials.
First martyr
St. Stephen's Cathedral exists not only in Vienna. This man, the first martyr, is honored in all Christian denominations. He came from the Jewish diaspora and lived in Jerusalem. For his sermon, read in about 33-36 years, that is, immediately after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, he was brought to the Sanhedrial court and stoned. The book "The Acts of the Holy Apostles" describes in detail about his service to Christ and martyrdom accepted. Orthodox people honor him on January 9, and Catholics on December 26.
It is not clear whether Stefan died on a death sentence or if the crowd simply lynched him, without waiting for the trial to end. He said things that did not yet penetrate the consciousness of people, even those who were contemporaries of the Lord and who, perhaps, listened to his parables and saw the miracles that he performed. Stefan talked about what he saw with his own eyes: the Father was sitting at the right hand. It seemed sacrilege. The very described scene of the murder is not like lapidation (stoning), it is rather the same crowd on whose conscience the Lord’s Cross is. In addition, immediately after the trial it was impossible to execute anyone - at first the Roman authorities had to give the go-ahead, and that took a lot of time. The executed Stephen prayed for his killers. When buried, “a great cry” was heard over him (Acts 8: 2).
Hungary
Budapest honors St. Stephen's Basilica (Cathedral) as the country's most important temple, calling the saint in Hungarian - Istvan. This is another saint, not the first martyr, but the king and creator of the country. That is why it is one of the largest temples in Europe, with a bell tower ninety-six meters high. Built in the style of neoclassicism, which was very popular in the nineteenth century. This cathedral is a vivid example of a strict and laconic classic. The first architect, Hild, did not calculate everything correctly, and once, many years after his death, the dome collapsed. Correct the mistakes took his follower - Miklos Ible. He managed to give the magnificent appearance of the temple some lightness and airiness, since the bell tower and dome incorporated a little eclecticism.
I must say that Eiffel himself advised the construction, so the structures turned out to be reliable, since then nothing has collapsed. Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral can be proud of such a rich neighborhood. Inside the basilica is luxurious: gilding, carving, magnificence of murals, grace of statues and a huge majestic altar. The dome arch is decorated with a creation scene. On one of the bell towers there is an observation deck for curious tourists who can climb the spiral staircase, and for the lazy two elevators are equipped. There is no such platform on the second bell tower - there is a nine-ton bell weighing.
Czech
But the Czech Cathedral of St. Stephen (Litomerice, in the Usti region) is dedicated to the first martyr. This chapel, cathedral and parish church is built in the Baroque architectural style. It stands high on Domsky Hill, which was called that - Mount St. Stephen. The Romanesque basilica appeared here in 1157, then in the sixteenth century it was reconstructed in Gothic.
In 1664, the temple was completely destroyed, and then the Italian Dominico Orsi in four years built one of the most beautiful baroque structures in Europe with a free-standing bell tower, connected to the main building by an arch bridge. The organ in this cathedral consists of four thousand pipes, it is made in the rococo style.
Germany
The Bavarian Cathedral of St. Stephen (Passau) is also very impressive: the length of the temple - 102 meters, width - 33, and height - 30. It is built in the late Gothic style with Baroque elements. Bavarians consider it one of the main attractions along with the famous castles. Gothic with a Baroque soul, as art historians say, is present in the interior as well, it is no less magnificent and pompous. The third largest organ in the world and the largest in Europe is also located here. He has only manuals of 5, 229 registers and almost 18 thousand pipes. A working organ, it sounds here daily.
In 720, the episcopal church of St. Stephen, built on the site of the early Christian church of St. Severin, was located here. Naturally, since then the cathedral has been rebuilt many times - wars, fires, even time itself is unlikely to convey to us the primacy of such an old building. In 1221, almost a hundred years of construction began on this site of the cathedral, and in 1407, almost two hundred years of perestroika - already in the late Gothic style. So they built the entire eastern part of the temple - a transept, choirs, increased the early Gothic nave. Many architects worked on this work of art, and Hans Glapsberger finished work at the beginning of the sixteenth century. This is how we see this Bavarian Cathedral of St. Stephen.
Austria
Let us return to the largest and most famous temple of this name in order to give some details for comparison. For example, the roof length of only the main nave here is 110 meters. Impressive, isn't it? The height to the roof ridge from the gutter is 38 meters (with the roof tilted in some places to the horizontal to 80 degrees), the roof supporting frame was wooden before the fire (2 thousand meters), now it is made of steel (about 600 tons). And the coating itself is 230 thousand multi-colored tiles that are covered with shiny glaze. It was from them that the coat of arms of Austria and the coat of arms of Vienna were laid out.
The three naves of the basilica suggest that there should be three entrance portals, but this is not so. There is only one entrance to the Cathedral of St. Stephen - this is the central portal, called the Gigantic, or otherwise the Gate of the giants. The huge bone found during the construction (it was decided that it was a dragon, they did not know about mammoths at that time) suggested such names. On the sides of these gates are three-tiered pagan towers. Pagan is not because ecumenism was encountered here in the Middle Ages. Just marble and other stone borrowed from the destroyed Roman temples. A lancet window rises above the towers on the central facade, and the entire portal is decorated based on the Last Judgment. In the tympanum are Christ and the angels, right and left - the apostles and evangelists Luke and Mark as witnesses of the Last Judgment. And below them, that is, above the capitals of the columns that are on the left, are demons with axes and rope loops and chimeras. To the right are human vices. The columns themselves are twined grapes - a symbol of communion.
Sculptural portraits and altars
The Church Fathers are depicted in the sculptural portraits: the young sanguine Saint Ambrose, the old choleric Saint Jerome, the mature phlegmatic Gregory the Great and the young melancholic Saint Augustine. All stair railings on fences in a decorative ornament: wheels with three spokes as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, rolling up, and with four - descending, which symbolize everything earthly - seasons, temperaments, ages. The railing itself - with a fantastic ornament: snakes devouring each other, toads, lizards. There is a dog who does not allow all this evil to the pulpit, where the priest preaches.
There are probably few churches on earth where there are as many altars as St. Stephen's Cathedral has (Vienna, Austria). There are eighteen, except for those that are in the chapels. The most famous are high (central) and Wiener Neustadt. The latter, an amazingly beautiful structure - a Gothic altar with murals and wood carvings - was created in 1447. Its name comes from the city in which it was created and where it was originally located. Wooden sculptures in gilding are dedicated to scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. The doors to the altar are open only on Sunday. On the outside are figures of 72 saints. The main altar was created by Tobias Pok, a baroque note appears in the architectural chord. The flaps depict the torment of St. Stephen. Black marble is the first altar of Vienna. The statues next to the altar are Saints Florian and Leopold, patrons of the city, and St. Roch - protector from the plague, about which St. Stephen's Cathedral can also tell a lot.
