Freelance Copywriting & Original Photography
Freelance Copywriting & Original 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
