Capuchin Church

Category: My latest Europe trip | Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:24 pm

From the castle we went to Capuchin Church in Vienna. The Capuchin Church is where many of the Hapsburg family are buried.

The Imperial Burial Vault lies below the Capuchin Church, which was built between 1622 and 1632. To this day, the Capuchin friars are the guardians and caretakers of the vault. According to tradition, from 1654 to 1878, the actual hearts of the Habsburgs were removed from their bodies and entombed in a special vault in the Church of the Augustinian Friars.

I need to say something about the Hapsburg family here as they were one of the most influential and powerful families the world has seen.

The Hapsburg dynasty was the single most influential monarchy in European history. Its reign witnessed the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and numerous wars before finally succumbing to the first World War.

The Hapsburg family were the exclusive rulers of Austria and surrounding areas for over 640 years, except for a brief period when a competing prince from Bohemia, Charles Albert, took control of Prague for a little less than a year before the Hapsburg family regained control.

The Hapsburg dynasty was successful because it practiced the strategy of "Make love, not war", meaning that it strengthened its empire and expanded its territories using shrewd marriages with other royal families rather than with the edge of a sword.

The Hapsburg royalty inherited the title of Holy Roman Emperor and leader of the Holy Roman Empire, originally established by the German king Otto I in 962 when he was crowned emperor by Pope John XII. The Hapsburgs remained the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire until political pressure forced Francis II to renounce his title of emperor and dissolve the Holy Roman Empire in lieu of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1806.

During the height of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, the Hapsburg dynasty comprised 70 million citizens and stretched across Central Europe as well as Central America and Asia. This fact caused Charles V to boast that "The sun never sets on my domain."

The power struggles in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, however, proved to be too much for even the Hapsburgs, who gradually began losing territory and influence until Francis Joseph renounced the throne of Austria on November 11, 1918 at the end or WW1.

Inside Schonbrunn. (Sorry, this should have been before Capuchin Church )

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Gardenstew wrote on Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:22 pm:

How lavish!

"The sun never sets on my domain." - Nice quote.

Ever consider taking up a position of a history teacher Craig? :) Your history lessons make for compelling reading.