The whole city of Vienna was built like some work of art, so it’s hard to say what building is architecturally the most beautiful. The Karlskirche (Charles’ Church) is considered to be one of the most beautiful religious buildings in the city. When you look at it, the church looks like a work of art built with lots of love.
The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles VI, promised to build a church for the city and dedicate it to Charles Borromeo, who was famous for healing plague patients in XVI century, but only under the condition that Vienna gets saved from this severe disease which ravened Europe during the Middle Ages. In 1713, the construction of the church began, and it was finished by 1737. The design of this church is very lavish, as only the baroque style can do. The styles used in the construction were Greek, Roman, Renaissance and of course Baroque, which prevails.
This church resembles Greek temples. In front of it, there are two pillars, which is rather unusual architecturally for a church and they were built based on Trajan’s Columns in Rome. Scenes from the life of St Charles Borromeo are depicted on these pillars. On the left pillar, the traits of Persistence are carved in stone, and on the right pillar there are the traits of Bravery. The dome of the church very much resembles the dome of St Peter’s Church in Rome.
All of this is nothing strange, bearing in mind that the main masters and architects on this church were mostly from Italy. Beside the beautiful interior which is enough to visit, the main attraction is the fresco by Johann Michael Rottmayr, painted at the beginning of XVIII century. There is also a painting depicting St Borromeo entering heaven. Inside the church, there is natural light, which makes it even more beautiful. Just like it looks nice during the day, built of pure white stone, it is as nice during the night.
The entrance to the church is free of charge, except for when concerts of classical and church music are held. For example, the ticket price for a New Year concert in the church is 50 euros per person. For the classical music concert “Mozzart Requiem”, the ticket price is 32 euros.
Author of the article:
Maja Glavaš, Bachelor with Honours in Communicology. Works in Tourism.
Contact: [email protected]; instagram: travel_europe1
photo credit: Eric Hong
