Content Creation & Fine Art Photography
Content Creation & Fine Art Photography
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
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
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
Plague was devastating in cities with crowded conditions and poor sanitation. In A.D. 1679, the Great Plague of Vienna wiped out approximately 76,000 people. Some victims were thrown in the ditch that ran through the Graben. Others were carted to huge pits outside the city to await burning. These pits
Continue readingPestsäule (Plague Column) & Graben, Vienna, Austria
Like the Hungarian State Opera House, Graz’s Opernhaus (“Opera House”) was built at the tail end of the 19th century – a time when the strains of the Blue Danube saturated every café in town. But while the Hungarians indulged in Renaissance excess, Graz plumped for Austrian values. The city
If nothing else, the Habsburgs believed in making a grand exit. In 1614, Archduke Ferdinand commissioned his beloved court architect Giovanni Pietro de Pomis to build his Mausoleum and St. Catherine’s Church (both pictured here). But when Ferdinand became Emperor and de Pomis died, the half-finished Mausoleum was left to
Continue readingMausoleum & St. Catherine’s Church, Graz, Austria 1
The golden Mausoleum of Ferdinand II and its church are the brainchild of Giovanni Pietro de Pomis. Muli-talented Italians have a long history of prettifying Graz. A Lombardian by birth, de Pomis was the court artist and favored pet of Ferdinand II. Like Domenico dell’Allio, de Pomis earned his keep as
Continue readingMausoleum & St. Catherine’s Church, Graz, Austria 2
