A Little Bit of the Macabre

My fellow classmates seem to have made me thee navigator of the U-bahn! A couple of them were rather freaked out when a train was in the Burgasse-Stadthalle station (the closest one to the apartments) and they saw that I was in it when they weren’t! I promptly got off to join them; apparently they were waiting for some other students to come, and I guess they all rely on me to navigate the system! I’m fine with this designation, though I find the U-bahn to be very easy to use. Consequently, I probably like it more than some of my cohorts!

Following a lecture on Catholicism versus Protestantism, a group of us went to visit the geographical center of Catholicism in Vienna: St. Stephen's Cathedral. Actually our goal was to climb to the top of its tallest tower, which is no easy task, given that there is only one very narrow spiral staircase, and both visitors going up and down have to share it. The views from the top, however, are very much worth the climb!

Shortly thereafter another epicenter of Catholicism was visited: the nearby Peterskirche. Now, when I first entered this church, my jaw dropped as I said a quiet "Wow" to myself. That was probably the idea behind the extremely baroque interior: to get followers to say "Wow!" as they come to worship.


Also in the Peterskirche are the relics and remains of a few saints:


I must apologize for the blurriness of the picture, but I hope it's easy to tell that there are remains behind that glass! I wish I knew just how long that body has been sitting there, and just how it was treated immediately after it died. I have read that the Viennese seem to have a fascination with death (especially one's own), so I wonder how this saint's body ties into that.

I would end up seeing more objects of the macabre later in the evening, when most of the class went out to the Zentralfriedhof cemetary. This cemetary is notable for several reasons. Apart from being extremely large, it contains the tombs of some of the most well-known musicians associated with Vienna - both Straussess, Brahms, Beethoven... Other noteworthy figures' final resting places can be found here. But the area of the cemetary that was of particular interest to our class was the Jewish area.



The gravestones here are markedly different from those in the rest of the cemetary. Many of them have tumbled into pieces. Many others are choking under overgrown plants. It is clear that the Jewish portion of the Zentralfriedhof has not been as well-kept as other portions, and I am forced to wonder why. Is it related to anti-semitism? Certainly many of the buried Jews here don't have much family around to have their graves attended to.

I found the whole area to be a bit depressing. It's like...even in death, the Jews of Vienna cannot escape having themselves and their names be disregarded. Their unattended headstones and tombs means that they can still be touched, still be insulted. I think this day has made me realize that I do not want to be buried in a specific locale when I die and have a headstone placed nearby me, for I would not want anything still attached to my name to be allowed the opportunity to be vandalized. I just want to be gone and free. I know these aren't exactly the most positive thoughts...but then again, I didn't find the Zentralfriedhof to be the most positive place.

The German word of the day is "wirtschaftlich," meaning "economical."