Yesterday was Vienna. Sooo beautiful and we went on a tour led by Bobette, one of the cofounders of the LCI (language and catechetical institute) so she knew a lot. Some cool places we saw:
The balcony from which Hitler declared the conquering of Austria. The symbol O5 was used to represent the Austrian resistance (The real name of Austria is Osterreich, and when you can’t write the double dots over the O you write oe, which was then changes to O5 to make it even more inconspicuous. This symbol can still be found outside the main church, St. Stevens to denote a meeting place for the resistance.
The Church of St. Augustine, aka the Church of Hearts. The hearts of like 50 Hapsburg family members are buried here. Their bodies lie in St. Stevens, and their entrails in another church, St Peters I believe. According to Bobette “everyone wanted a piece”.
We saw the Franciscan Church of the Madonna della Neve (Madonna of the Snow) which is the official Italian cathedral of Vienna. They even say Masses in Italian there. If I go back to Vienna on a short weekend that is definitely on my list. This Church also housed a massive mosaic copy of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. It was absolutely huge (20 tons) and absolutely beautiful. It was remarkably true to the original despite the change in medium. I also found it interesting because it allows you to see more detail than you currently can in the original. The original has deteriorated a lot because of Da Vinci’s misguided attempt to make a new paint formula. This copy was made in the 17th century (I think) so its artist must have seen more of Da Vinci’s original work.
The school of the lipizzan horses, the white Spanish ones that dance. Apparently you can go to see a practice on Saturday mornings for a decent price (much better than a performance anyway).
My favorite part of the day by far was the Treasury. The major part of it was devoted to relics. My favorite (for fun, not for spiritual purposes) was a Christmas tree shaped reliquary with different relic “ornaments”, among them bones, dirt, blood and even teeth. It was fascinating. Other relics of note we saw were thorns of Christ’s crown, Veronica’s veil, a piece of the tablecloth of the last supper, a piece of the clothing of John the Baptist, relics of the twelve apostles, St. Francis and St. Theresa of Avila, and even a piece of Jesus’ underwear. Unfortunately I missed the latter, but it probably would have made me laugh instead of drawing me into prayer so maybe that’s better.
Also this is random but the program director’s name is Mr. Wolter. However, he says the word fabulous with such frequency that I’ve decided to call him Mr. Fabulous. I sincerely hope it catches on with the student body. I bear him no ill will whatsoever, he’s actually a wonderful guy outside of excessive orientation speeches and excessive talking in general, I just think it’s hilarious.
