I was in Vienna over the weekend and unfortunately got so sick that I couldn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. But what a lovely city it is! It is built for an empire that no longer exists, and there's something rueful about it.
I had a very international dinner with some Viennese and mostly foreigners, but luckily I was sitting next to a Viennese. He told me that all the emperors and family of the Habsburgs, the royal family of Austria, are buried in a huge imperial crypt, like the Egyptian pharaohs or the emperors of China, but all in one place with many rooms, under the Capuchin church.
Otto von Habsburg, who would have been emperor if the Austrians still had one, died in 2011 and was buried in the crypt with the now-traditional ceremony.
When the procession gets to the outer door, a herald knocks and a Capuchin monk answers, "Who wants to be allowed to enter?" The herald answers with all the titles, for example "Otto von Habsburg, Emperor of Austria, royal prince of Hungary." (Don't know if those are the actual titles.)
But the monk answers, "Wir kennen ihn nicht." [We know him not.]
The herald knocks again and this time responds to the question "Who wants to be allowed to enter?" with "Otto von Habsburg of Austria."
"Wir kennen ihn nicht."
The herald knocks a third time. This time, to the question, he answers, "Ein sterblicher und sündiger Mensch." [A mortal and sinful human being.]
And the door opens.
When I went to Vienna, we actually went on a tour of the crypt. The tour guide is AMAZING - he does everything in German first, even if there are no German-speakers on the tour, and then asks, "Should I repeat in English?" When we got to the crypt of the Hapsburgs, he escorted us all in, gave his explanation in German, and then said, "You are now surrounded by the internal organs of the Hapsburgs." It was hilarious and creepy, very well done, and less than 5 Euros if I remember correctly.
Posted by: Gem | 28 January 2013 at 16:26
That is so cool! I would love to take that tour. The map in Wikipedia makes the place look vast.
Posted by: Sedulia | 28 January 2013 at 18:59