Fünfter Tag

I think I am getting the hang of the public transportation system here. I can see why people rank it as one of the top public transportation systems in the world. It consists of a network of U-bahn trains, street cars, and buses. Trains arrive at the stations usually in less than five minutes, making it very convenient. Bart, by comparison, can keep you waiting upwards of fifteen minutes on a train. On the trains you are also provided with reading material (for me another opportunity to practice my German and make myself seem less like a tourist).

After a discussion of religion vs. magic in class today (which didn’t end well for medieval Catholicism), we took the train to Stephansplatz and climbed all 343 steps to the top of Stephansdom’s South Tower. In this room you get a 360 degree view of Vienna, and it is little wonder that the tower was used as a watchman’s outpost to spot fires, and, during war, the enemy. I wonder why it was never targeted by enemies, as it would have provided an easy target to attack. Maybe the enemies used it as well as a landmark to launch attacks in the city, for example during the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683.

After that, we meandered our way to Peterskirche. The construction of this church in 1701 marks thebeginning of the Baroque construction explosion in the city following the previously mentioned Turkish onslaught. This era saw a large number of magnificent construction projects, mostly noble households. Common people were encouraged to remodel their houses by the court, which allowed individuals a certain number of years free of the obligation to house court officials in their homes (these officials only paid a third of the rent normally charged for inhabitants).

After Peterskirche, we rode the streetcars to the Zentralfriedhof. There were some magnificent tombs, some holding entire families. I noticed that people that had given service to the Crown were given larger, more magnificent tombstones. We saw many famous graves, including Beethoven and Strauss. The grave sites here are tended by the deceased’s kin, something that becomes apparent when you enter the Jewish section of the graveyard. Whereas the previous section was well groomed and beautiful, this section is overgrown with weeds and full of mosquitoes. The kin of the dead here are either dead themselves or moved away, thanks to the Holocaust. There were many magnificent Jewish graves as well, so they must have played a major role in the politics of both the Court and Viennese daily life. It is curious, therefore, that in 1669 they were expelled from Vienna.