08/10 - 08/11
As Vienna has consistently been rated as the world's most livable city for years (according to an article from Foreign Policy), I sought to better understand why that is on Saturday (08/10). Consequently, I decided to tour public transportation and housing museums around the city with a group of other students—some of which were focusing on these topics for their movie project. Despite this, our first stop on Saturday was at St. Stephen's catacombs, a place many of us had eagerly been waiting to visit. Although we were barred from taking pictures, the tour of the musty catacombs still proved to be an interesting experience. The class disparity of the burials in the catacombs became quickly apparent to me; while the Habsburg royals were granted multiple burial rooms, many of the poorest residents of Vienna were haphazardly stacked on top of each other. Additionally, when the tour guide explained that the urns contained the organs of the Habsburgs, he then clarified that while there are many theories for why this was done, one of the more plausible reasons is that disemboweling the bodies made them easier for transportation across such an expansive empire.
Our next stop was the Verkehrmuseum Remise, Vienna's new public transportation museum. It was a fascinating to learn about the history of Viennese public transportation, particularly the infiltration of the Nazis into the leadership of the public transportation system following the 1938 Anschluss. Moreover, I enjoyed learning about the evolution of Viennese streetcars, including seeing a couple of them that dated back to the nineteenth century. I must admit the envy I felt as an American after noticing maps depicting Vienna's extensive railroad and streetcar systems.
The various streetcars inside of the Verkehrmuseum Remise.
Our final stop of the day was KunstHausWien, a museum in Vienna's Third District. Similarly to the Hundertwasserhaus that we visited last Saturday, the KunstHausWien was another building designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The museum highlighted Hundertwasser's belief in environmental advocacy and public housing, as well as exhibiting a couple of his paintings. Moreover, the museum also elucidated Hundertwasser's reasonings for his unique architecture, which often had religious undertones. One of his most famed quotes is that "the straight line is godless," exemplifying his rejection of straight lines in his architectural designs.
Left to right: the use of greenery in KunstHausWien & a diagram of a community built in Hundertwasser's style.
Although I was also glad to cross the Danube River for the first time, what I was most excited about Sunday (08/11) was visiting the Danube Tower (Donauturm) as it was pertinent to the subject of my movie project: the heights of Austria. Standing at over eight hundred feet tall, the Danube Tower is the tallest structure in Austria and the sixty-eighth tallest across the globe. Since opening in 1964, the tower has become a popular tourist attraction, which is unsurprising given its breathtaking sights from its viewing platform. Equipped with a slide and a restaurant, the Danube Tower is a worthwhile visit if you want an unobstructed 360° view of Vienna from high above.
The view from the top of the Danube Tower.
The last stop on Sunday was at the Imperial Treasury (Kaiserliche Schatzkammer) within the Habsburgs' Hofburg Palace. The Imperial Treasury is a set of dimly lit rooms containing various relics and possessions of the Habsburg family, including a unicorn horn (though some ignorant skeptics believe it to merely be a narwhal tusk!). Most notably, the Imperial Treasury houses the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. As emperors, most of the imperial rulers wore the crown during their coronations until the eventual 1806 dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. According to Steven Beller's A Concise History Of Austria, the first Habsburg member to be officially crowned as emperor was Frederick III in 1452. Ironically, Frederick III was also the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope in Rome, as his successor—Maximilian I—was blocked from entering Rome during his 1508 coronation and thereafter proclaimed himself to be emperor. Moreover, Maximilain I's successor—Charles V—was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be directly crowned by the Pope.
Left to right: a genuine unicorn horn & the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire.
German Words of the Day: Büro (Office) & Einfach (Easy)
Provided by: Transparent Language