More Delightful Details on Kartause Maria Thron

So, today we got to talk to the man who restored the Kartause, architect Hilderbrand. We plied him with questions and I fell in love with the man. Afterwards I was one of only a handful that he welcomed into his house that is kind of like stepping from a wardrobe into Narnia because you would otherwise not know it was there. Some pictures from the Resoration. Specifically of my favorite spiral staircase to the choir loft. Basically, several decades ago, this architect, Hildebrand, discovered Kartause Maria Thron. At the time, it was in shambles, overgrown, rundown and falling into ruins. He made it his life-time hobby to restore it. Of course he worked as an architect, so he could only work on the weekends, and he rested on sunday. That made for slow progress.
It was also confusing on just how to restore it...Should he restore it entirely back to it's original 1342 gothic self, or leave some of the renaissance and baroque restorations? The ceiling, for instance, is a gothic ceiling with a baroque ceiling re-made about 400 years later twenty feet below it. That he just repaired and left with a double ceiling. But the side Eucharistic chapel displays the original gothic arches. The frescoes to left and right of the main altar, depicting Faith, hope and Love were under seven layers of plaster. Can you imagine the trembling hand he laid to each one, wondering whether he is about to ruin something?
Hildebrand was a funny man. He cracked jokes throughout our whole tour and really just endeared himself to us all. He made professor Herrera translate for him, but sometimes he would take over and speak near perfect english anyway.


The "secret garden"


This was the home of Johanna, wife of Albrecht II, in Burgundy. Albrecht modeled his Maria Thron after her chapel to ease her homesickness.

It is said that Johanna was the one who sat for the sculpture of the Maria Thron in the chapel. That and the two figures in the chapel (copies of the originals in St. Stephen's in Vienna) are the only likenesses of Johanna in existence today.

Another interesting thing: it was from here that Albrecht II made Vienna a city. We have a copy of the township license proclamation thingy, in Hebrew, German and Latin I think, saying that the Emporer intended to make that area of the country his imperial palace.

Ooh la la. Siloutted (humility) roses (Mary/love/sacrifice), Red (humanity) tile roof, Blue (divinity) sky, white (purity) walls. Is there not something very Maria Thron about that?
Hildebrand made us try guessing what this was. He said he found it in the treasury. It was an early tomb of some Roman child. He made it into a fountain.



These I think, were archery targets...although I doubt if that was their orignial intention. I forgot to ask Hildebrand.

A cool room. I hit my head on one of the gothic arches shortly after this picture and I have a huge goosegg to show for it. I was afraid I damaged the thing at first, I hit it so hard. I almost fell over...luckily only one guy was watching, the ITI student in the yellow shirt, whom I like because he reminds me of someone, so I forgave him for seeing my blonde blunder.

This courtyard was seen by no one but the monks for 400 years: 1342-1742, when Josef II closed many many monasteries in Austria because they had too much power. The windows, amazingly enough, including the one in my room, survived the centuries and most are original from the 14th century! Just thinking about all the different people who have been in my room is amazing. I mean, this is probably where the servants Albrecht II lived, and then farmers, then during the Soviet invasion and WWII Russian soldiers slept here, keeping their horses in the chapel.

The monks were pretty amazing. They never slept more than 3 hours at a time. They kept a perpetual vow of silence, besides communal prayer, except for 4 hours on Sundays. Hildebrand said they didn't have much to talk about even then, so they just prayed the rosary together. They were vegetarians, to which some attribute their longevity. Apparently many people of the time died of food poisoning from meat.

One monk lived to be 115 years old. He even then didn't die of old age, but died after being thrown from a horse while returning from delivering a message to Salzburg!

Pointing to landmarks in Europe are.
The Biblioteke. At the end, it was just Hildebrand, and about 20 other students lingering. He took us through a door just under the flags. It was his own living room. He showed us all through his AWESOME hidden house. It was so sweet. He told us not to tell the other students because they would get jealous.

An oil painting in Hildebrand's living room of the Kartause in its full splendor, probably about 450 years ago. I live in the building in the far right middle. The half to the right of the Maria Thron Chapel is what Emporer Albrehct II built for himself and his court. The left half was for the monks.

Half of the wall still remains. It is a good wall...witheld a turkish seige that lasted only a day before they gave up and went away.

He was the first ruler in the world to have this idea of living in a humble palace attatched to a monastery. Alrecht was born in Hungary and moved to Austria after marrying a princess of Burgundy, Johanna. Together they had 7 children. The whole family is buried in the floor of the Maria Thron. Every five years anthropologists are allowed to open the tomb and study the remains and treasures. I asked Hildebrand when they will open it again, and he smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "It has been five years. "

This corner fresco depicted Europe
Rotundae are impossible to photograph. Even laying on the floor, this is the type of picture you get. This is in the Biblioteke (secret library). It shows the Seven Liberal Arts.
This is the 4 evangelists. If you can make it out, look at the corner just left of the window. There is an easel and madonna sketch, randomly thrown in the fresco. The story goes the artist, whose name escapes me at the moment, finished his work early that day, had extra paint to use, and so decided to have a little fun!

There are other places where the painter's sense of humor shows as well. Several places the paintings are 3-D in plaster. A dragon's tail comes out from the wall in one spot, part of a Greek's cloak, an eagle's beak and a lion's face jump out from the flat wall.
These corner frescoes depict the corners of the world: The Americas above and Asia below

This is the corner fresco for Africa
The back of Hildebrand's hidden house.
This was Hildebrand's office room. It used to be a pig sty. Literally.

Vaulted ceilings for a pig pen? Yeah...this is Austria, remember?
Hildebrand the Architekt. What a man.

Wien: Stadt von Musik, Shokolade, Kaffee, Wein, and Pferde

Yes, Vienna: city of all that a girl needs in this world: music, chocolate, coffee, wine, and horses. Yesterday we spent an amazing, albeit exhausting day in this amazing city. We were planning a return trip before the day was half spent, there is so much to take in. Mark Kalpaikakgan (sp?) and his son Ari. Our tour guide and the director of the Austria program
Caitlan and Liz take in the secenery
This was inside Minoritenkirche. We had Mass here. The painting of our Lady within a painting I thought was interesting. Fr. Ron explained that when emporer Josef closed so many monasteries, the monks secretly kept this painting (the inner one).
Another magnificent organ in Minoritenkirche

A mosiac reproduction of Da Vinci's Last Supper. It weighs 20 tons.
Caitlan, Liz B. and Christy outside Minoritenkirche


Behind Ari and Mark is the palace, the third largest building in the world. Vatican has number 1, followed by something in Spain, and then this. From that balcony on the far right, Hitler announced his rule in 194-something, Pope John Paul spoke from it about Human Rights in the 80's and in 2005 Franciscan University Students spoke from it as well.

Mary, do you know what this is? The Spanish Riding School, home of the Lippazanners. When the American troops came to Vienna in World War II, we aided the Austrians in smuggling the magnificent animals to the mountains to protect them from invading Russians.

Mary, you would love this city. You know, it doesn't smell like a city. It smells like horses. The whole downtown. And everywhere you go you see them. You hear them clip-clopping down the street as you pray in St. Stephen's.
A chapel in the palace where many Hapsbourgs were married. Mark was telling us that most kings acquired new land by making war. Hapsbourgs had a different strategy: make love. A slightly ackward way of putting it, but that is what they did: they acquired the largest rule in Europe by marrying off their children to Royalty far and wide.
Maria Teresa had this tomb in the chapel made for her favorite daughter. But her favorite daughter didn't die then and she was actually never buried here. The tomb stands empty. ANOTHER beautiful organ

And another
An altar for St. Rita. All those marble placards say Danke, Rita. They were placed there by people who had miracles performed for them which they attributed to the saint.

A cappuchin monastery in Vienna. Mark told us that the Catacombs beneath the church are full of the tombs of nearly the entire Hapsbourg dynasty. When the funeral procession reached the door, they would knock on the locked door. The monks within reply Who knocks? And the funeral procession tells them it is the King and proceed to list all his greatest titles and conquests. Then the monks reply: "We do not know you." The funeral procession knocks again, and tells of the Emporer's lesser conquests and titles. Again the monks turn them away with "We do not know you." The third knock, they say "This is Holy Roman Emporer ____, a poor sinner." Finally, the doors swing open.

The last Hapsbourg would-be-current emporer by blood, Otto is still alive, and he has been invited to speak to us at the Kartause this semester. He has done so a few times in the past. He is quite old, a good holy great man like his beatified father. He will probably die soon. The big question is, will he be buried here in this way as well, with his father, Bl. Francis I, and grandfather and the rest of his royal family?

Liz and Caitlan

St. Stephen's

Look for the turkish cannonball lodged in the side of the pillar, a little to the right of the center of the picture.
Liz, me, Christi, and Caitlan. We ate lunch in the cellar at the Zwolf Apostelkeller. Now a restaraunt, it has had many uses in times of war and peace since it was built in 1100.
Some very special Romanian bread.

We were in St. Stephensplatz when this procession came out of a chapel door. We figured out it was a Romanian Catholic Church holding some kind of festival. They remained the whole afternoon dancing and playing instruments and singing and doing baton performances and what not. It was so captivating. We kept coming back. The people were just so into it, and just having a ball. All ages...old ladies and little girls and young men and women and old men. Singing and dancing and laughing. The joy was infectious and I was dying to dance too. It looked like so much fun. There is more pictures below as we wandered away and came back throughout the day

A metal dancing dude
Flowers of Austria. Sunflowers are everywhere.
Caitlan and Christy and a long-nosed friend

Me and Pinocchio and Liz B.
The crown of Josef II, if memory serves me correctly....although after musing through that entire museum, I doubt much of it is very clear


Caitlan looking at a painting of the Coronation of a king in the National Treasury museum. A museum crammed with paintings, royal and priestly vestments, armor, relics, and religious art. It really made me wish I knew German, though. We could figure out some of it, but being able to read the information plaques would have been handy.

This was an incredible piece. It looked like a rose bush King Midas crossed paths with.
A real narwhal horn
Yep. A family tree of Jesus. How cool is that?
A stunning cape vestment of some kind
A really interesting depiction of the Trinity, Father Son and Spirit.

Romanian old ladies mixing with the tourist crowd

Romanian old ladies dancing
Watching the old Romanian guys watching the old Romanian ladies dancing. These guys were great. They were singing at the tops of their voices to the slow waltzes of the ladies and clapping and occiasonally grabbing one and spinning her wildly. They got so into it.

singing and dancing
I just missed the heel-click in the air by half a second. Whenever the guys would swing the girls really fast, the girls would shriek with this ear-peircing scream at a pitch you never thought was possible.
These guys were having so much fun
St. Stephen's tiled roof as the sun sets. The roof was destroyed in WWII, but rebuilt in ten years to match exactly the way it was before.
Caitlan and her man. We were walking by shops with posters like this one and commenting. But Caitlan's comments on this one were hysterical. She walked past this fella and said something like, "He is not the guy for me...he looks like the type who will work late nights, come home and kiss the wife and then sit down with his laptop. Look at him, he is full of himself. He thinks he is so cute, and he is kinda right...but just wait: he'll ask you how was your day and he'll be checking his watch"!

All the time I was in Vienna, though i was thinking of everyone gathering at my Oklahoma home. Here's hello to Mom, Dad, Samantha, Andrew, Mary, Jacob, John Paul, Kateri, Joey, Donovan, Avery, Erika, Sara, Dane, Daniel, Aunt Karla, Uncle Ray, Grandma, Grandpa, and whoever else who may have shown up. Wish I could be there! Good luck finding a piece or a peace to sleep.....