Karlskirche, Vienna, Austria 1
The Karlskirche (“St. Charles Church”) could be called Fantasia on Imperial Majesty. In A.D. 1713, riding high on the retreat of the Turkish threat and his new position as Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI decided to build a church for his patron saint, the fanatically anti-Protestant St. Charles Borromeo. Plague
Karlskirche, Vienna, Austria 2
Although he never lived to see the Karlskirche finished, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach can’t have been too unhappy. For this is the man who created the Austrian National Library, the Schloss Klessheim, the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, and the Collegiate Church in Salzburg. Born in Graz
Column, Karlskirche, Vienna, Austria 1
Carved by the sculptor Lorenzo Mattielli, the columns on either side of the Karlskirche are modeled on Trajan’s Column in Rome. They also echo the columns, Boaz and Jachim, that stood guard at Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The swirling relief depicts scenes from the life of St. Charles Borromeo, to