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| Joseph II. |
If you've seen Amadeus, you might remember the Emperor Joseph II asking Mozart not to kiss his ring, saying, "It's not a holy relic." This neat Enlightenment sentiment is apparently based on something Joseph really said—except talking, not about his ring, but himself—"I'm not a holy relic."
This is a good time to point out that Joseph's heart, intestines, and corpse are individually preserved in separate metal containers in three Viennese churches. They are visited weekly by tourists, and by priests; they are prayed for; people even leave flowers. It's not just Joseph II either; this bizarre triple burial has been accorded to five centuries of Habsburgs. Their hearts are preserved ("preserved") in silver urns in the Augustinerkirche, the chapel of the Habsburgs' Imperial Court (Hofburg), in a specially-designed Herzgrüftl—"little heart-crypt." Their intestines were meanwhile carted over to the cathedral—the Stephansdom—and, similarly in-urned, stored in the Herzogsgruft (Dukes' Crypt) beneath the altar. The remainders were entombed in elaborate bronze sarcophagi, which are kept in one of Vienna's most solemn spaces—the Kaisergruft, or imperial crypt, whose entryway bears the inscription, "This is a Holy Place." Whether or not Joseph intended to be a holy relic, he—along with the remains of his entire lineage—has become one.
But the Kaisergruft is rather unlike the other two, for its host church is comparatively minor. Founded in the 16th century by Capuchin monks, the Kapuzinerkirche is architecturally uninspiring, and actually has very little significance beyond the 145 royals in its basement. Why, then, did the most powerful family in Europe choose to have most of their body parts buried in it?
I was having trouble figuring this out until I looked at the three churches on a map. Maybe doing the same will help you, my illusory reader:
It seems that the Kapuzinerkirche (2) might well have been chosen not because of its status, but location: its addition to the trinity creates a nearly-linear axis that cuts from the city wall to the heart of Vienna (the cathedral). The significance behind such a gesture lies in the shaky nature of Habsburg ascendancy. For centuries, the Habsburgs were lords of nothing but a stretch of river in Switzerland, on which they enforced passage tolls from their hilltop castle. After a brief stint of power in the 13th century, they were quickly eclipsed in the Empire by the Bohemian Luxembourg dynasty, and only by a miraculous combination of marriages, deaths, and good luck did the Habsburgs later regain the Imperial seat.
And though the Habsburgs had been established in Vienna since the 1200s, it was not unequivocally "their city"—having been built by Romans, rebuilt by the Babenbergs, and briefly ruled by the Czech Přemyslid dynasty. Their right to the Austrian lands was shaky enough that, from the 14th century down to the 18th, they would wheel out the "Privilegium Maius," the fraudulent document claiming that Austria had been given to the Habsburgs by Nero, as proof of their legitimacy. What's more, until the 16th century, Vienna had by no means been the only Habsburg center. Charles V (r. 1516-1556), history's most powerful Habsburg, had his imperial capital in Toledo, Spain, and almost never visited Austria. It was only when Charles divided his vast empire in two that "Austria" became a separate political entity from the Habsburgs' other holdings, making Vienna a proper capital in 1556.
Beginning in the 16th century, then, a new type of Habsburg presence would be required in Vienna—not only physical, but symbolic as well. By laying their own "relics" to rest in a contiguous series of churches, the Habsburgs used their own body parts to newly inscribe themselves into the city: to create an itinerary of Imperial holy sites, and to incise a new axis of Habsburg power that would unify the Imperial Court—home of the Augusinterkirche—with the Stephansdom, the center of the Austrian church. Between these two endpoints, of court and church, their bodies are suspended; in them is centered a spatial harmony between state and religion. We might even say that, by filling the crypt under the cathedral altar with their intestines, the Habsburgs claim (in a strange way, sure) a fundamentally Catholic space for themselves, and underwrite it with a subversive, Imperial meaning (one that extends out, away from the church, toward the Hofburg). Thus the often-bloody struggle between empire and church, between Vienna and Rome, manifests itself in royal entrails—even Joseph's.
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| The Herzgrüftl. |
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| Tombs of Emperor Franz Joseph, Empress Elizabeth, and their son Rudolph, in the Kaisergruft. |
But the Kaisergruft is rather unlike the other two, for its host church is comparatively minor. Founded in the 16th century by Capuchin monks, the Kapuzinerkirche is architecturally uninspiring, and actually has very little significance beyond the 145 royals in its basement. Why, then, did the most powerful family in Europe choose to have most of their body parts buried in it?
I was having trouble figuring this out until I looked at the three churches on a map. Maybe doing the same will help you, my illusory reader:
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| Vienna in the 16th century. 1. Augustinerkirche—hearts 2. Kapuzinerkirche—bodies 3. Stephansdom—intestines |
It seems that the Kapuzinerkirche (2) might well have been chosen not because of its status, but location: its addition to the trinity creates a nearly-linear axis that cuts from the city wall to the heart of Vienna (the cathedral). The significance behind such a gesture lies in the shaky nature of Habsburg ascendancy. For centuries, the Habsburgs were lords of nothing but a stretch of river in Switzerland, on which they enforced passage tolls from their hilltop castle. After a brief stint of power in the 13th century, they were quickly eclipsed in the Empire by the Bohemian Luxembourg dynasty, and only by a miraculous combination of marriages, deaths, and good luck did the Habsburgs later regain the Imperial seat.
And though the Habsburgs had been established in Vienna since the 1200s, it was not unequivocally "their city"—having been built by Romans, rebuilt by the Babenbergs, and briefly ruled by the Czech Přemyslid dynasty. Their right to the Austrian lands was shaky enough that, from the 14th century down to the 18th, they would wheel out the "Privilegium Maius," the fraudulent document claiming that Austria had been given to the Habsburgs by Nero, as proof of their legitimacy. What's more, until the 16th century, Vienna had by no means been the only Habsburg center. Charles V (r. 1516-1556), history's most powerful Habsburg, had his imperial capital in Toledo, Spain, and almost never visited Austria. It was only when Charles divided his vast empire in two that "Austria" became a separate political entity from the Habsburgs' other holdings, making Vienna a proper capital in 1556.
Beginning in the 16th century, then, a new type of Habsburg presence would be required in Vienna—not only physical, but symbolic as well. By laying their own "relics" to rest in a contiguous series of churches, the Habsburgs used their own body parts to newly inscribe themselves into the city: to create an itinerary of Imperial holy sites, and to incise a new axis of Habsburg power that would unify the Imperial Court—home of the Augusinterkirche—with the Stephansdom, the center of the Austrian church. Between these two endpoints, of court and church, their bodies are suspended; in them is centered a spatial harmony between state and religion. We might even say that, by filling the crypt under the cathedral altar with their intestines, the Habsburgs claim (in a strange way, sure) a fundamentally Catholic space for themselves, and underwrite it with a subversive, Imperial meaning (one that extends out, away from the church, toward the Hofburg). Thus the often-bloody struggle between empire and church, between Vienna and Rome, manifests itself in royal entrails—even Joseph's.
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