It’s All in the Packaging

Yesterday we went around the block near our hotel, and to our surprise, found that most of the interesting sights could really be found practically around the corner. We went to see the famous Capuchin vault (foundation stone laid in 1622), the place where they kept the Imperial crypt. Crypt, you ask? Yes, a bunch of old bones of the Habsburgs imperial household. Surprisingly, it was not creepy at all. There were actually many visitors to the vault. We had to pay 4.00 Euro each to get inside.

The double sarcophagus holding Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) and her husband Franz Stephan (1708-1765).

Well, it’s all in the packaging (as in my title above). The double sarcophagus was so enormous, so elaborately done that it would be almost difficult to imagine that it was holding the bones of some dead persons inside. Well, not just any “ordinary” person. I guess even in death they want that to be known. They lived no ordinary lives. But then again, they’re no deader than the commoner buried in an unknown cemetery elsewhere. Death is humbling, the great equalizer. No doubt about that.

This is the last entry here while in Vienna. We will be leaving today for Japan. That’s an 11-hr, 30-min flight for us.

For the record, I would like to say that this is probably the most educational trip for me. Probably for Baggy too. We’d been to so many churches in a span of one week (and that’s many times more than we had ever been to in any given year, hehe). I will be posting more interesting pictures in our photo album later.

Plague column at the Graben square, high baroque built 1682-1693. Originally wooden, it was erected in 1679 and dedicated to the Holy Trinity to commemorate the plague which hit Vienna.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *