Stephansdom

St. Stephen's Cathedral is that church in Vienna. It's the metro stop you get off at when you want to go into the old city and mostly everything fans out from the square in front of the cathedral.

Kinda intimidating, actually.

I had three people tell me to go there, one by name because you simply have to visit Stephansdom if you're visiting churches in Vienna, one because the outside was amazing, even though it's partially (perpetually) under construction and one because they have these colored filters in front of the windows so when the sun comes in, it looks like a laser show in a gothic cathedral. All of these seem like valid reasons to check out the building.

There are so many churches in Vienna. There's Maria vom Siege, Our Lady of Victory, right down the road from my hostel. There's Peterskirche, but more on that later. There's the big church in Karlzplatz. There are dozens of other churches not big enough to be landmarks on a map, but they're still around, quietly awaiting the patronage of churchgoers and tourists alike. There are even churches without impressive buildings. I think there's a Korean church also down the road from my hostel, marked with a cross sticking out into the street and there's the English Speaking United Methodist Church in Vienna that has very detailed directions on its website because it's easy to miss. I almost feel bad for spending a whole week here and only really looking at two churches.

So if there are so many options for going to church, why is Stephansdom the church in Vienna? The audioguide says it's a symbol for Vienna and a symbol for Austria. It's also quick to point out Mozart's involvement in the church (he was married there, christened two of his children there and his funeral service was held there). And I have to say, it is a pretty church. The outside is adorned by what must be thousands of stone curls along with the traditional gargoyles and scenes from the life of Christ.

These are just the curls on the tower. You should see the rest of it. 

 Inside is also beautiful, light show notwithstanding. There's your regular slew of statues of patron saints, Mary and the apostles, and of course, Jesus himself. The stained glass windows behind the main altar are impressive, along with the organ(s).

Organ win.

Besides all that, the south tower contains the second largest bell in the world which you can (pay money to) ride the elevator up and see. It also gives you a pretty good view of Vienna.

I first went to Stephansdom on Ascention Day. Note to everyone- Catholic holidays, like Ascention Day, are bank holidays in Austria so most of the shops are closed, with the exception of the souvenir shops. The museums were open, I guess, but besides that, there's not much else to do besides go look at churches.

Ascension Day is the day, forty days after Easter, when Christ left the disciples again and ascended into heaven. The two Sundays from that is Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit to the first Christians and the birth of the Church but I guess on Ascension Day, we focus on the things that have left us, rather than the things that were given us.  You could smell the melting wax from hundreds of candles the second you stepped into the cathedral. And that was beautiful enough in itself- through the crowds of people with their cameras out, focused on capturing the colors on that wall or the picture above that altar, you could see a few making their way slowly to the side altar to offer a prayer before they lit a candle, sending lost spirits up and away.

But then there were these tours going around everywhere and all these little interactive information posts that cost 2 euros to operate and people jostling people outside the metal screen that separated the narthex from the nave and I think I bought an audiogiude just for the chance to step away from them all. I sat in the nave for a few minutes, then walked around, listening to the story of the baptisimal font in St. Catherine's chapel, the Madonna whose colors have been turned black by the smoke of ages of devotional candles lit beside it, the old organ and the new organ, the destruction of the cathedral during a fire in World War II and the beginning of the ever contintuing construction after the war.

I sat in front of the chancel and high altar for a few minutes, watching a family that had come in pray. Then an older man walked right up into the chancel, past the altar table and up behind the choir, where a screen, part of the colorshow, separated us from the altarpiece and statues. This distracted one of the young men in the family from his prayers and he watched the lady who had come in with the man as she told him, I assume, that she didn't think he was supposed to go up there. He waved her off and eventually she walked up into the chancel too, causing the young man in the pew to look around concernedly. Within a few moments, he sat back in relief as one of the staff members of the cathedral shooed the tourists out of the chancel, answering their protests by insisting, "It's for the priests!" as he shut the chancel rail. The old man threw his hands up in the air in frustration, then gestured to the chancel rail that had been left open. The staff member just shook his head and said again, "For the priests!"

The audioguide takes you around the nave of the church, with a brief stop outside one of the side chapels. Stephansdom is a hall church, with two rows of columns separating the nave from the side aisles with equal celilings. You can sit in front of one of the altars in the nave and listen to the guide as it points out where the organ used to be and where the choir used to stand. The master builder put a carving of himself into the wall under where the organ stood, supporting the weight of the instrument.

It's right close to the entrance to the crypt, which I had planned on visitng, before the staff started to set up for a service later that evening. With all the people still inside, I figured I'd do them a favor and get out of the way, knowing that it can't be easy to maintain a functioning church when people are just standing around, gawking at everything. A loud crowd of teenagers passed by as I stood to go and staff member walked by and said, "Quiet! You are in church!"

Even on Sunday morning I think the staff could have issued the same warning. I was going to go to the English speaking church, but then again, how often do you get to go to church in a cathedral? And besides, I'll get to hear English every Sunday soon enough. So I walked in and I bypassed all the people standing around and gawking and walked into the main nave, talking a seat near the transept. Eventually the seats around me filled and more and more people walked into the nave, filling in the pews, the chairs they had sat out in addition to the pews and finally standing in the middle of the transept. I watched the families walk around, the new parents strolling around their babies, the youth in suits shaking hands with everyone, the older couples shuffling down the aisles, taking a seat whenever someone younger hopped up to let them have a place. It was a pretty vibrant congregation, full of well-to-do people who knew each other and greeted one another by name.

The nave was so full a member of the staff had to get people to move from the middle of the transept so the acolytes and priests could process in. I thought it was funny- we had all hopped up at the sound of this little bell announcing the beginning of the service but people hadn't thought to look around for the entrance of the clergy. I found out partway through the service that it was Confirmation Sunday (or something like that- there might be another rite I'm missing, the whole not being catholic thing) so many of the people filling the transept were family members watching their young relatives being ushered into the life of the church. Their concern was focused on anything other than the ceremonial procedures of the service.

It always amazes me how wired these old buildings can be. There were TV screens for people in the back so they could see what was going on in the service and there were microphones for the musicians, priests and anyone who came up to the lecturn, which was a surprisingly large number of lay members. The service started out with the organ filling the room, as I expected, but the rest of the music was provided by 1) a monk on the accordian accompianying 2) the music leader on guitar showing 3)two oboes, a flute, a clarinet, 4) a tambourine player and 5) four female vocalists on mics. Plus the head priest dude. They always have to sing into their microphone, though, so I guess it's expected that you have to be more than tone-deaf to lead a service.

An hour and a half later, the band played its last song, the priests processed out and the organist played a short postlude after the confirmands posed for pictures. It felt like a pretty standard service, albeit in German and with the weird standing and kneeling and crossing yourself that I swear I'm going to master before I leave the continent. People stayed around in the nave even after the organist finished, talking to each other and taking pictures with their families.

I, however, fought my way through the flood of tourists waiting on the other side of the metal bars that separated the holy from the secular and strode into the sunlight outside of the cathedral.