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English:
Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of
Saint Stephen and All Saints, Vienna, Austria.
Deutsch:
Dom-und-Metropolitankirche zu
Sankt Stephan und allen Heiligen,
Wien, Österreich.
Photo: 8 October 2017.
Source: Own work.
This File is licensed under the
Share Alike 4.0 International licence.
Author: C.Stadler/Bwag
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia, unless stated otherwise.
At the top of the Tower stands the Double-Eagle Imperial emblem with the Habsburg-Lorraine Coat-of-Arms on its chest, surmounted by a Double-Armed Apostolic Cross, which refers to Apostolic Majesty, the Imperial Style of Kings of Hungary.
This emblem replaced the earlier Crescent and Six-Pointed Star emblem. The original emblem, as well as a couple of later ones, today can be seen at the Vienna City Museum.[5]
The North Tower was originally intended to mirror the South Tower, but the design proved too ambitious, considering the era of Gothic Cathedrals was nearing its end, and construction was halted in 1511.
In 1578, the Tower-Stump was augmented with a Renaissance cap, nicknamed the “Water Tower Top” by the Viennese. The Tower now stands at sixty-eight metres (223 ft) tall, roughly half the height of the South Tower.
The main entrance to the Church is named “The Giant’s Door”, or “Riesentor”, possibly referring to the thigh-bone of a Mammoth that hung over it for decades after being unearthed in 1443 while digging the Foundations for the North Tower, or else to the funnel shape of the door, from the Middle-High-German word “Risen”, meaning “Sink” or “Fall”.[6]
The Tympanum above the Giant’s Door depicts Christ Pantocrator flanked by two Winged-Angels, while on the Left and Right are the two Roman Towers, or “Heidentürme”, that each stand at approximately sixty-five metres (213 ft) tall.
The name for the Towers derives from the fact that they were constructed from the rubble of old structures built by the Romans (German “Heiden” meaning Heathens or Pagans) during their occupation of the area. Square at the base and Octagonal above the Roof-Line, the Heidentürme originally housed Bells; those in the South Tower were lost during World War II, but the North Tower remains an operational Bell Tower.
The Roman Towers, together with the Giant’s Door, are the oldest parts of the Church.
English:
The Nave, Vienna Cathedral.
Deutsch:
Innenansicht Richtung Empore des Stephansdoms
in der österreichischen Bundeshauptstadt Wien.
Photo: 26 February 2017.
Source: Own work.
Attribution:
© C.Stadler/Bwag; CC-BY-SA-4.0.
Author: C.Stadler/Bwag
(Wikimedia Commons)
The glory of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral is its ornately-patterned, richly-coloured roof, 111 metres (364 ft) long, and covered by 230,000 glazed Tiles.
Above the Choir on the South side of the building, the Tiles form a mosaic of the Double-Headed Eagle that is symbolic of the Empire ruled from Vienna by the Habsburg dynasty.
On the North side, the Coats-of-Arms of the City of Vienna and the Republic of Austria are depicted. In 1945, fire, caused by World War II damage to nearby buildings, leapt to the North Tower of the Cathedral and destroyed the wooden framework of the roof.
Replicating the original bracing for so large a roof (it rises thirty-eight metres above the floor) would have been cost-prohibitive, so over 600 metric tons of Steel Bracing were used instead. The roof is so steep that it is sufficiently cleaned by the rain alone and is seldom covered by snow.
English:
The “New” Organ, Vienna Cathedral.
Deutsch:
Die „neue Domorgel“ bzw. „Rieger-Orgel“ im rechten Seitenschiff (Apostelschiff) des Stephansdoms in der österreichischen Bundeshauptstadt Wien.
Photo: 26 May 2018.
Source: Own work.
Attribution:
© C.Stadler/Bwag; CC-BY-SA-4.0
Author: C.Stadler/Bwag
(Wikimedia Commons)
PART SIX FOLLOWS.
