Karlskirche

Vienna's most theatrical church was born of a vow. In 1713, a year after the city's last great plague, Emperor Charles VI promised a church to his namesake Saint Charles Borromeo, the Counter-Reformation archbishop venerated as a helper of plague victims. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach won the design competition against Hildebrandt and Galli-Bibiena; building started in 1716, and after the elder Fischer died in 1723 his son Joseph Emanuel carried the work to completion in 1737, trimming the drum of the dome and adding the attic storey along the way.

What makes the Karlskirche unforgettable is the way it stitches together architectural quotations that should not fit. A Greek temple portico forms the entrance; on either side stand two free-standing columns wound with spiral reliefs in the manner of Trajan's Column in Rome, carved under Lorenzo Mattielli with scenes from the saint's life; beyond them, two low bell pavilions recall the Roman Baroque of Bernini and Borromini; and above everything rises a dome on a high drum. The columns carry a double meaning worked out by the court scholar Carl Gustav Heraeus: they echo Boaz and Jachin before Solomon's Temple and the Pillars of Hercules, the old emblem of Habsburg power.

Inside, the eye is pulled upward to Johann Michael Rottmayr's dome fresco, painted with Gaetano Fanti, in which Borromeo intercedes for the plague-stricken with the support of the Virgin. The high altar, conceived by the elder Fischer, shows the saint's apotheosis beneath a round window of warm yellow glass bearing the Hebrew name of God, set in gilded rays. Side altars carry paintings by Daniel Gran, Sebastiano Ricci and Martino Altomonte, and the richly carved walnut pulpit had its heavy 19th-century rim removed in 2006–07 to recover its original lines. Antonio Vivaldi, who died in Vienna, was buried in 1741 in the hospital cemetery that once adjoined the church; his grave is lost, but his music is regularly played here.

The church stands on Karlsplatz, on the edge of the Innere Stadt, and forms one side of an ensemble with the Musikverein and the Vienna University of Technology. It is served by the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star and is also the church of the university's Catholic student community.

Getting there

The church is on Karlsplatz, about 1 km from the centre of Vienna, next to the Karlsplatz U-Bahn station. Vienna International Airport (VIE) is about 18 km away.