Author: Ann Laemmlen Lewis

We spent our morning in a very special place with our good friend, Signe Lassl, who lives here in Vienna.  She was the perfect tour guide as she led us through Vienna’s main cemetery.

The cemetery is one of the most magical places in Vienna. Waiting to be discovered here are graves of honor from Beethoven to Falco, fantastic Art Nouveau architecture as well as abundant lush greenery that makes the cemetery a popular local recreation area.

The cemetery was pretty organic (not manicured). Long grass. Most of the more normal stones were dark granite, tall and narrow. Not much statuary or religious markers. The graves were crowded. There were also war sections with rows and rows of fallen soldiers. One section was all Russian soldiers. The Jewish section had Holocaust victims, row after row. There is a wooded area for scattering ashes. There is a park area for kids to “recreate.” There are deer who live in the cemetery and come out early in the morning or in the evenings. There was a beautiful church–we went in it. Art Nouveau. Important people have funerals there. The presidents of Austria are buried here. Lots of history all in this place. Signe said she loves thinking about the stories of each person. Sometimes she sees an interesting stone in the famous people sections, then looks up the person to see what they did. She’s gotten to know many of them and she has her favorites.

The whole experience was really nice. We enjoyed it and she enjoyed sharing it with us. We spent almost 3 hours there, feeling the peace and beauty of the place.

Paradise of the animals
Above all else, of course, the Viennese love the Central Cemetery for its qualities as a local recreation area. The cemetery is a natural paradise and the perfect place for going on long walks. The Central Cemetery is also just as popular with joggers. Cycling is also permitted. – And with a little luck, you might also come across some very special residents here. Because when things rustle in the bushes, nobody need fear the undead: the Central Cemetery is a habitat of deer, field hamsters, squirrels, badgers, martens, kestrels, and many other kinds of animal that value this huge area as much as the Viennese.

We started our wandering in the old Israelite (Jewish) section, a lush green burial ground with lots of architecturally interesting monuments and graves of prominent Jewish personalities.  The graves were in all shapes and sizes, from simple headstones, to full structures that house many family members.

Broken stones here are also preserved, which is unusual in many European cemeteries where the plots are given up when the family stops paying for the space.  When that happens, the stones are often stacked in a corner of the cemetery, or repurposed into new stones.

Can you tell the change in the neighborhood here?   The area for each ethnic group has its own personality.

Interesting how many of these graves had their own benches for family to sit and visit.

Here is the Buddhist section:

And here is the Latter-day Saint section, started about 10 years ago.  The cemetery had reserved this area for nuns, but since there aren’t so many nuns anymore, they were not using the ground.  They agreed to let our church use it.  It’s in a prime location right behind the cemetery chapel.

Signe’s mother and step-father are buried here:

This is the nun’s section:

Here is the inside of the beautiful cemetery church.

This section is home to Russian soldiers who died here during WWII.

And here is the section for children and babies–there is a sweet and tender feeling here.

 

This section was also filled with lots of chairs for visiting loved ones.  It made me smile.  We do the same in our Lewis family when we visit the cemetery on Memorial Day.

Many of the trees here were filled with clumps of mistletoe.

This cemetery area is where ashes of the cremated can be spread.  It’s a natural wooded area.

Famous people I don’t know:

In the cemetery center is the section for Vienna’s famous composers.

Mozart’s memorial:

There are so many great and wonderful people represented here by these stones and memorials.  Gratefully, their spirits have moved on from this earth life and they continue to live in a heavenly place where we will join them one day.  What grand reunions we will have!

This last statuary is perfect, Jesus Christ, our redeemer from death, “until we see each other again!”

 

Late this afternoon before leaving for our evening concert, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the Puerstner restaurant.

Then we went out to find tonight’s concert venue.

Many of the evening musical concerts here are held in smaller chapels and churches that seat 100-150 people.  They are intimate and cozy and you must buy your tickets in advance because they quickly sell out.

Tonight we listened to a brilliant trumpeter accompanied by a pianist/organist.  It was oh, so good!  He played classical pieces and lots of Christmas music, including many beloved German/Austrian carols.

Here are a few pics from before and after the concert in this beautiful chapel:

One thing we learned from the tour guide yesterday was about the buildings in Vienna. Because of the bombing during the war, 20% of the homes were destroyed and in the 1950s they were rebuilt in a really ugly plain cement functional style. The guide (an art history scholar) called those buildings “scars.” Today I took a few pics of some of the scars. You’ll have a beautiful row of tall stately apartment/homes, then an ugly one where the space was rebuilt. The colors are usually bad and there is no adornment on the façades. Just flat cement. Ugly.

Wikipedia: What happened in Vienna during World War II?
The city of Vienna in Austria was bombed 52 times during World War II, and 37,000 residences of the city were lost, 20% of the city’s housing stock. Only 41 civilian vehicles survived the raids, and more than 3,000 bomb craters were counted.city was bombed.
Compare this to Salzburg: Fifteen air strikes destroyed 46 percent of the city’s buildings, especially those around Salzburg railway station. Although the town’s bridges and the dome of the cathedral were destroyed, much of its Baroque architecture remained intact.

Across from our Marriott Hotel is a park called City Park.  It’s a peaceful place with memorials to musicians and famous people who lived in Vienna.

This man is doing what I’d like to be doing 10 years from now.

Strauss is Vienna’s son, the composer of so many Viennese walzes.

There is a small Christmas Market in this City Park.  Today they were resting.  The bigger markets stay open all weekend.

This is where we stayed this week:

Our Sunday in Vienna was lovely. We had breakfast in the hotel, then John figured out how to find a train to take us to the neighborhood where the Vienna Leopoldstadt Ward meets. We were there early and visited with some of the good members before church. An older lady in the chapel was playing a small harp and we thought of Claire (this is the building she attended when she lived here).

The Christmas program was great. Lots of music and small groups singing. Youth on the front row told the Christmas story while illustrations (from a book) were shown on a big screen. Hymns were sung to illustrate the story. It all came together nicely. The chapel was full to the brim. Someone the missionaries taught was baptized yesterday. One Sister was going home tomorrow (her parents were here to pick her up). Visited with them afterwards. It was all so nice.

Afterwards we decided to walk back to our hotel through the mist and rain.  It was peaceful and relaxing after the busy Christmas Markets we visited yesterday.

This evening we had tickets to Handel’s Messiah, performed at the beautiful Musikverein in downtown Vienna.  The Musikverein, built in 1870, is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world.  We were thrilled to be in this historic place.  Music really is the heart of Vienna.

Waiting for the concert to begin:

We weren’t allowed to take photos during the concert, but here are a couple at the conclusion:

The performance was fantastic. The musicians were excellent. I loved watching the conductor, who had his own take on the interpretation and I really liked how he conducted. He was an older gentleman with good energy.

What really got to me was the end, with a 10 minute-long standing ovation that led to a second round of the Hallelujah Chorus. I kept thinking that these people think they are applauding the musicians, but what they are really cheering for is Jesus Christ. It was all about him and the Spirit in the concert hall was filled with His Spirit. These good people felt that. I sure did. Maybe they didn’t all recognize it for what it was, but I think most did. I kept thinking, “Jesus Wins!” I felt thrilled by it all.

The Vienna Opera House across the street:

What a beautiful evening!

In all of our comings and going (we are pretty intent on seeing EVERYTHING there is to see here), we sometimes just want a quiet place to sit for a few minutes, so we look for a church spire or bell tower and we duck into a church for a few minutes.

Each church is spectacular in its own way, a place of refuge and a place to reflect on our blessings and let our feet rest.

Here’s an interesting little detail–an electrical outlet in the floor.

There are concerts in most churches, especially during the Christmas season.

Here are a few more sites we visited in the course of our day:

These people are waiting in line to get a famous piece of cake–Sachertorte.  We didn’t feel the need to wait!

Here are some Roman ruins in the heart of Vienna: