Stephansdom: The Beloved Cathedral of Vienna

by Joanna Diane Caytas, appearing in Volume 28

Giant’s Gate at Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, Austria. Photo: wikipedia.org

Among the greatest Gothic cathedrals of Central Europe,¹ Vienna’s Saint Stephen’s Cathedral features one of the most incomplete, heterogeneous architectures, but also one of the lengthiest construction periods.² While the Northern Tower has remained unfinished at a mere 50 percent of its intended height and was topped by a Renaissance cupola that not even so much as pretended conceptual harmony or finish,³ structural additions continued throughout the Baroque era and indeed well into the twentieth century.

Original construction plans served the evolving political ambitions of the rising dukes of Austria to make their capital city a bishopric independent of the ancient diocese of Passau⁴ and thus increase the stature of their house within the Holy Roman Empire.⁵ Consecutive rulers expanded and built over the existing structures, and in the process they changed both the size and style of the church.

As a consequence, not everything here complies with the traditional characteristics of Gothic cathedrals. The basilica plan shows a lack of a distinctive transept; instead, the oversized South Tower of record height⁶ was added to the side in the mid-fourteenth century as a tower flanking the choir (Chorflankenturm),⁷ as was the unfinished North Tower with the “Eagle’s Door” marking the transverse axis of the church. Saint Stephen’s has not one but three choirs: one main and two side choirs, each culminating in an apse.⁸ The gable roof of the choir area is markedly lower than that of the later nave.⁹ It is still Romanesque in its western façade with a single portal,¹⁰ along with two hexagonal, westerly towers that barely reach beyond the extremely massive roof of the nave. This accounts for much of the height of the cathedral without finding a reflection in the internal height of its vaulting.¹¹ These western Heathen Towers—Heidentürme—were built with stones and masonry of ancient Roman structures cannibalized during the twelfth century from ancient military fortifications. They form the oldest part of the church, together with the Giant’s Gate (Riesentor), in late Romanesque style (circa 1230).¹²

Section drawing showing the generous height of the side aisles. Image: A History of Architecture, Sir Banister Fletcher

The main portal is crowned by a simple tympanum partially hidden by a porch, portraying the traditional Christ in Majesty (Christos Pantokrator, an early, almost Byzantine version of the posture) in a mandorla, symbolically baring his knee, either as a secret Masonic sign or to underline his position as the biblical judge, even though there are no typical registers visible below that would portray the Last Judgment. Christ is accompanied by two winged angels in a composition distinctly reminiscent of the church of Saint Julien at Saint-Julien-de-Jonzy¹³ (ca. 1150). The archivolts are decorated with geometric motifs in low relief instead of ornate sculptures of angels or saints as in Amiens and other French Gothic cathedrals. The simple doorway has no lintel, no jamb figures, and no trumeau characteristic of other Gothic cathedrals such as Amiens. The Giant’s Gate derived its popular name from the giant mammoth thighbone that was unearthed much later, in 1443, during excavations for the North Tower. For decades thereafter, this bone hung over the main entrance as a supposed giant human relic “from the time before the great flood when giants walked the Earth.”¹⁴ Aside from the Giant’s Gate, which is used mostly for processional purposes, behind the Heathen Towers is the Bishop’s Gate to the north, once reserved for women, and to the south the Singer Gate for men—both in high Gothic style (ca. 1360–70). The decorative tympanum over the Bishop’s Gate features the Dormition and Coronation of the Virgin, while the Singer Gate portrays the life and conversion of Saint Paul. Two additional, more modest entries lead to the church through its South and North Towers.

Lateral aspects of this limestone structure create the appearance of façades without an accentuating median: the western frontispiece, stacked with architectural elements, lacks the vertical drive of Romanesque full-length salient buttresses or Gothic uniform horizontal divisions that would accentuate the width and stability of the cathedral. Instead of a central wheel or rose window above the main portal, Saint Stephen’s features a large traceried window with a pointed arch, reminiscent of clerestories in English Gothic cathedrals.

Nave of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, with the pulpit at the left. Photo: wikipedia.org

Still, dominant techniques and flourishes of Gothic architectural design abound: in accordance with the canon of German Gothic hall churches, the aisles are almost the same height as the nave, disposing of the three-story internal elevation of the nave typical of French Gothic (cf. Amiens Cathedral). Instead, they let more light in through larger, traceried stained-glass windows and full-height arcades as the importance of sermons as a congregational activity increased across all transalpine parts of Europe. Complex web vaulting of the nave and aisles reflects High Gothic style similar to that of another German Gothic hall church, the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster (Holy Cross Minster) at Schwäbisch Gmünd (1317–1351), while the choir preserved the older quadripartite ribbed vaulting. An abundance of pinnacles, especially on the towers, adds to the appearance of Gothic weightlessness, while flamboyant arches as well as multiple gargoyles increase the decorative aspects of the architecture. Several sculptures and intricate decorative elements attached to the internal piers and arcades disrupt the monotony of the multitude of soaring vertical lines of the nave.

Simple stone floors in maroon and white checkerboard pattern, without decorative elements such as labyrinths or swastikas as in Amiens, disrupt the visual main axis of the church by diverting attention to the aisles and creating an illusion of increased width for the nave.

Six separate chapels form part of the cathedral: Saint Barbara’s under the North Tower, Saint Catherine’s under the South Tower, the Chapel of the Cross in the northeast corner, Saint Eligius’s in the southeast corner, Saint Bartholomew’s, and Saint Valentine’s (which holds the sepulcher of Saint Valentine).

The gable roof, now supported by six hundred metric tons of steel, is 111 meters long, rises to 60 meters in height in the nave, and is covered by 230,000 glazed tiles¹⁵ in an interwoven diamond pattern, enshrining on the south side the coat of arms of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine¹⁶ and on the north side the coats of arms of the City of Vienna and of the Republic of Austria. The roof of the cathedral is so steep that it is self-cleaning by rain and virtually never gathers snow.

Saint Stephen’s has a total of twenty-three working bells, including Austria’s largest (and Europe’s second-largest), the immensely popular Pummerin (Boomer), dedicated to the Virgin Mary, founded of three hundred Turkish cannons captured after the siege of Vienna by Sultan Mehmed IV in 1683, and decorated by a crown showing the heads of six Turks. It rings in the New Year, Christmas, Easter, All Saints Day, and only very few other major events due to its structure-endangering weight (44,380 pounds).¹⁷ One of the most popular and most innovative artworks of this cathedral is its pulpit, providing considerably greater audibility of local language sermons to the faithful delivered from a stone perch carved in late Gothic style at the top of a staircase wrapped around a pillar in the nave, rather than from the pulpit in the choir.Under the stairs, a hatted man looks out of a trompe l’oeil window under the stone handrail adorned with toads and lizards devouring one another in a struggle between good and evil. It is a famous self-portrait of its master mason, the “Fenstergucker.”¹⁸

Wiener Neustädter altar. Photo: wikipedia.org

The principal focus of any church is, of course, its altars. Saint Stephen’s has eighteen of them in the nave and central apse along with one in each of its six chapels. Of the three most famous altars, two survived shelling and conflagration at the end of WWII: the High Altar and the Wiener Neustädter Altar.¹⁹ Crafted with marble from Poland, Styria, and Tyrol, the High Altar (1641–47) is surrounded by figurines of local saints Leopold, Florian, Sebastian, and Rochus, and crowned by a statue of the Blessed Virgin under an oil panel of Christ welcoming the ascension into heaven of Saint Stephen, the first martyr. The High Altar was part of a Baroque remodeling of the cathedral under Emperor Ferdinand III in the 1640s.

The South Tower, built between 1368 and 1433, stands 445 feet high. Its nickname is “Steffl,” a diminutive form of Stephen. Photo: wikipedia.org

Over time, the cathedral’s exterior served also profane yet important societal purposes such as the display of the official Vienna measurements for fabric²⁰ or coded anti-Nazi resistance graffiti.²¹ For many centuries, a watchman’s apartment was manned every night high in the South Tower for long-range military surveillance and fire alarms. Ernst Rüdiger Graf Starhemberg, city commander during the Second Turkish Siege of 1683, used this perch for reconnaissance of enemy movements and directed the defense effort from this unlikely “command and control center.”²² More than any other city landmark, Saint Stephen’s faithfully held immense emotional significance to the people of Vienna in their darkest hours and visibly bears the scars of 750 years of their history.

Endnotes: 1. This is one of the principal Gothic structures outside France and the only Gothic cathedral in Austria. See Arthur Saliger, “Der Wiener Stephansdom,” in: Der Stephansdom. Orientierung und Symbolic, eds. Karin Domany and Johann Hisch (Vienna: Wiener Dom Verlag, 2010), 109–153, at 125. The South Tower took sixty-five years to build (1368–1433) and stands 445 feet (136.67 m) high, the tallest structure built in its day. 2. While the original cathedral was built from 1137 to 1160, major changes lasted till 1511 and the structure itself was never fully completed due to difficulties like limited supplies of stone. See Andreas Rohatsch, “…Hie sind vermerkt die fertt von Au und von Menestorf,” in: Der Dombau von St. Stephan. Die Original pläne aus den Mittelalter, eds. Michaela Kronberger and Barbara Schedl (Vienna: Metroverlag Wien, 2011), 50–53, at 53. 3. Construction of the North Tower came to a halt in 1515. The “Welsche Haube” (Italian cap) was added in 1578. 4. This project came to fruition only when the Babenberg Margrave Leopold IV (“The Munificent”) acceded to a major land swap in the Treaty of Mautern with Bishop Reginmar of Passau, a century before construction commenced in 1137. See Karl Lechner, Die Babenberger, Markgrafen und Herzöge von Österreich, 976–1246 (Vienna: Boehlau, 1976), 143 et seq. 5. Not entirely unlike a modern city’s bid for the Olympics, the ascendancy of medieval capitals in an elective monarchy like the Holy Roman Empire depended on superregional recognition, including ecclesiastical significance. In this context, the enormous expense of a project such as a major cathedral separated the wheat from the chaff of “minor princes.” For the munificence of the emperor with the Church reinforced his legitimacy dei gratis (by the grace of God). See Georg Flor, Gottesgnadentum und Herrschergnade: über menschliche Herrschaft und göttliche Vollmacht (Cologne: Bundesanzeiger, 1991). 6. Despite its height of 136.67 m, the South tower rests on a foundation of just 4 m depth. 7. “Gotik,” Wikipedia, last modified August 9, 2015, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotik. 8. This is the third choir built in Saint Stephen’s (1304–1330), each repeating the basic shape but increasing in size. 9. The nave was built 1420–1450. 10. French Gothic cathedrals such as Amiens and Notre-Dame de Paris had usually three portals, one leading to the nave and two to the aisles. 11. The apex of the roof reaches 60 m, while the nave is 28 m high. The Heathen Towers are 66 m tall. See “Stephansdom,” last modified August 24, 2015, http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.s/s838794.htm. 12. The rest of the Romanesque structure was dismantled in the mid-fifteenth century as a larger Gothic nave was being built literally around and over it. See Barbara Schedl, “Der beschwerliche Weg zum Dom,” in: Der Dombau von St. Stephan, eds. Kronberger and Schedl, 29. 13. Romanesque, circa 1150, now known as the Saint Julien de Saint-Julien-de-Jonzy in the Brionnais, Burgundy, France. See: “Saint Julien de Saint-Julien-de-Jonzy,” last modified January 19, 2015, http://www.romanes.com/Saint-Julien-de-Jonzy/Saint_Julien_de_Saint-Julien-de-Jonzy_0017_en.html. 14. “Stephansdom: Giant’s Gate and Heathen Towers,” last modified August 24, 2015, http://www.wienvienna.com/stephansdom-giants-gate-heathen-towers. One of several allusions to Noah’s Ark. 15. The April 12, 1945, incendiary catastrophe, caused by arson laid to surrounding buildings by looters, destroyed the original supporting wooden framework. (See “Stephansdom: History (1900 – today),” last modified August 24, 2015, http://www.wienvienna.com/stephansdom-history-fire-services-tourism.) It totaled one square kilometer of forest. See “St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna,” Wikipedia, last modified August 12, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral,_Vienna. 16. Niall Bird, “Stephansdom Roof,” Architektur in Wien (blog), March 20, 2010, http://architekturinwien.blogspot.com/2010/03/stephansdom-roof.html. 17. Europe’s second-largest swinging bell, it is now rung only by computerized electric mechanism since 2003. See “Pummerin,” Wikipedia, last modified August 14, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pummerin. 18. But it is no longer certain whether the Fenstergucker is portraying master architect Anton Pilgram (1460–1516) (“Stephansdom,” http://www.vho.at/guide/stephansdom.en.html.), or Niclas Gerhaert van Leyden (1430–1473), whose pulpit of Saint Francis stomping on a Turk is affixed to the outside. See “St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna,” Wikipedia, and “Niclas Gerhaert van Leyden,” Wikipedia, last modified January 1, 2015, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niclas_Gerhaert_van_Leyden. 19. The “Wiener Neustädter Altar” was purchased 1884 from the New Cloister at Wiener Neustadt and bears Friedrich III’s famous mysterious slogan “A.E.I.O.U.” on the predella, sometimes interpreted as “Austria Erit in Orbe Ultima” (Austria Shall Be the Greatest on Earth). Cf. “Stephansdom,” http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.s/s838794.htm. 20. The linen ell and the drapery ell. 21. “Gedenktafel (unter dem ‘05’-Zeichen rechts vom Riesentor),” last modified August 24, 2015, http://www.nachkriegsjustiz.at/vgew/1010_stephanriesentor.php. In the final days of WWII, the South Tower flew a white flag to invite Russian troops to enter the city without further destruction. It was only due to an artillery captain disobeying a direct order from the Wehrmacht command that the tower was not destroyed. See “Letzte Tage des Krieges in Österreich: Der Kampf um Wien im April 1945,” March 27, 2005, http://www.news.at/articles/0510/10/107183_s1/letzte-tage-krieges-oesterreich-der-kampf-wien-april-1945. 22. See “Stephansdom,” http://www.vho.at/guide/stephansdom.en.html. Even today, the Vienna building code does not permit any edifice in the city proper (south of the Danube) that might interfere with the skyline to rise even remotely near the height of the cathedral.