On this Christmas morning of 2024, we got up early and went out into a silent city to go to the Hofburgkapelle, which is the chapel in the Hofburg Palace where the royals worshipped. We walked through totally empty streets–no one was out yet. It was still and quiet. No cars, no people, no shops open. I was imagining the people of Vienna snug in their apartments, enjoying the aftermath of their Christmas Eve celebrations and food.
We walked through this rotunda and into the courtyard of the palace.
The church entrance was in the courtyard (you couldn’t tell it was a church from the outside). We waited in line to go into the chapel, then waited in our seats for the service to begin. We were there early enough to hear the choir and a men’s chorus warming up.
We were there early and could hear the boys warming up. We were a little disappointed to learn that the Vienna Boys’ Choir, the men’s choir and the orchestra would not be where we could see them–they were up in the organ loft behind us. There were about 20 boys, 20 instrumentalists and 10 men performing the music. We never saw any of them.
Then the service began. The mass was done in Latin with a bit of German. We had a program with all the words and translations to German so we were able to follow along. It was a small chapel similar in size to the other 2 chapels where we’ve enjoyed evening concerts. It was very beautiful. We were asked not to record any of the music or take photos during the mass.
The music for the mass was from Haydn–his St Nicholai written for Dec 6th in 1772. It was really beautiful. After the mass and sacrament had ended (about an hour), the choir above sang Stille Nacht and then the organist played a beautiful arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles). Then we were excused. We lingered to enjoy looking more closely at the church and the Nativity there. It was a really beautiful chapel.
After the service:
This is the loft where the performers were located.
What a beautiful start to our Christmas Day in Vienna. The music was heavenly.
Here are a few pics taken in the Hofburg Palace inner courtyard.
We stopped in at another church as we left the Hofburg Palace area. What a lovely way to start our day.
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 