Vienna is a lovely city. This post features a few “city-scapes” of Vienna from the visit Stephanie and I made in early July. An additional post will highlight some of the wonders in the museums. First, from one of the bell towers of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, here are a couple of views of the city of Vienna.
Before the concert, we also had a bit of time to see parts of Vienna, including some city squares and famous churches.
The churches, as in most European cities, are historical beauties and worth a visit. First, the famous St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which one Website claims is the symbol of Vienna. The first photos are of a bronze model outside the church (since I could not get a good view of the entire church from the ground).
The actual cathedral pictures I took that day show dramatic Romanesque and Gothic features in the architecture.
The roof was a multicolored design (which doesn’t show all that well in the photo above, but I was able to get a better shot from the bell tower.) The design includes the coat of arms for the city of Vienna shown in the photo on the bottom left.
St. Stephan also has multiple bells in the bell towers, the largest of which (and the only one I saw) was the Pemmerin. The sign says it was cast from Turkish cannons in 1711.
I only have a few photos from inside the church, so I selected just one to give you an idea.
As we walked the first night to find our way around the city, we discovered how close we were to the beautiful Karl’s Church (Karlskirche), the large Baroque church near the city center.
Vienna is a classical music city, with statues and plaques honoring many great composers. Here are just a few-Beethoven (with a cardboard sign around his neck that kept blowing in the wind so we couldn’t read it), Mozart (with a treble clef of flowers), Chopin, and non-musician Goethe whose poetry was set to music by many composers.
It was pleasant just to stroll the streets, as Stephanie and I found out as we took a 45 minute walk to church on Sunday. It was a wonderful way to get to church.
We walked past this community garden,
the famous opera house, and
this new statue (by some famous artist we were told)!!!
In my tastes, the pink rabbit is not nearly as wonderful as this statue of the Entombment of Christ by Franz Kässmann in St. Michael’s Church near the gate to the Hapsburg Imperial Palace.
More photos from St. Michael’s Church for you to enjoy. This church had beautiful wrought iron work all though the building and grounds. It made me notice it in other places in Vienna. (I think it deserves a post of its own, so you’ll have to wait to see it.)
Finally, we greatly enjoyed attending the English speaking ward in Vienna, and, among the many visitors that Sunday, found some friends of Margaret and Craig from Houston (the world is small and full of friends).
The beautiful flowers kept my camera busy here, too.
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