Austrian History 3

Vienne, Macku:

-fondée par lempereur Charles VI à la suite d’un voeu pendant la peste de 1713

le chef d’œuvre de Fischer von Erlach

-acevée par son fils Joseph Emmanuel de 1724 à 1739

-les deux colonnes sont conçues à l’imitation des colonnes triomphales romaines et font allusion au titre de roi d’Espagne parté par Charles VI (colonnes d’Hercule)

-la partie superieure a l’aspet d’un minaret

-la façade centrale est dominée par l’enorme coupole et précédée d’un portique grec ; l’adjonction des deux tours latérales lui confère des dimensions presque égales à la longuer de la nef

-Fischer a realisé une des tendances de l’époque : créer l’unité dans la diversité-« unitas in multudine », selon l’expression de Leibniz-par une ordonnance simple, sans surcharge ornementale

A Competition was held for the design of the Church and towards the end of 1715 the emperor accepted Fischer’s plan. The foundation stone was laid in 4 February 1716. Te building itself differs in many ways from the first designs. At the beginning of 1722, when Fischer’s son returned to Vienna, his father was hardly capable of directing the work any longer. On 24 March 1723 the Emperor commanded Fischer the younger to continue with the supervision of the building. In 17388 the church was handed over to an order of chivalry-the Kreuzherrenorden mit der rotten Stern-in the presence of the emperor.

I has a twofold function-as a votive church and as a monument to the greatness of a dynasty. The spiral reliefs represent scenes from St Charles Borromeo;s life and the miracles he performed after his death. Statues symbolizing the saint’s virtues stand on the attic between the columns. The deliverance of Vienne from the plague forms the subkect of the relief on the tympanum of the porch. The statue above, at the apex of the pediment over the main entrance, shows the saint in the attitude of an intercessor for mankind and thus embodies one of three theological virtues-charity. The other two virtues-faith and hope-are represented by allegorical statues surmounting the towers.

On the exterior the dome is guarded by statues of angels, inside, a fresco depicting the glory of the saint, surrounded by angels in adoration of the Holy Trinity, seems to open up a vision of heaven (the fresco was not part of the original project).

The Emperor himself was glorified by this Church. The pair of triumphal columns was his own emblem, which he had taken over from his ancestor and predecessor as Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V. These ‘pillars of Hercules’ therefore bear the crown of Spain at their summits, flanked by eagles, the heraldic beast of the Holy Roman Empire. The deeds of St Charles allude simultaneously to the constatia et fortitude of Charles VI (his motto), qualities which helped him endure every turn of fortune.

Fischer was influenced by the Temple of Jerusalem, which architects of the time supposed to be the basis of all sacred buildings in Europe. Also, influence of St. Peter’s in Rome and François Masart’s église des Minimes, Dome des Invalides.

The individual parts of the front of the church-the dome, the two columns, side-towers and portico-are attuned to one another by their proportions and bound together by dynamic tension. The relativelt independent parts of the building are harmonized to form a visual unity. As a result there is no façade in the usual sense, but a frontal view and a composite structural group with several different aspects, consisting of heterogenous elements, but unified by the recurrence of certain motifs both on the exterior and the interior of the building.

The very high interior of the building makes its greatest impact on the visitor through the monumental quality of its structural forms and the cool harmony of its colours-in the Baroque period, red-brown, which, and gold signified dignity and stately appearance.

The Karlskirche was conceived with its main front facing the Hofburg; this connection can no longer be observed because of the main building of the Ringstrasse in the nineteenth century.

THE HAPSBURGS

Edward Crankshaw, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971

Charles acted like a Spanish king even though the Hapsburgs had lost the Spanish throne under the Treaty of Utrecht. HE became obsessed with the need to secure the hereditary lands beyond challenge for his own issue, his daughter if he had no son. He concentrated his career on bribing the European powers unto pledging themselves to recognize the integrity of the Hapsburg inheritance in its entirety and the sovereignty of his successor.

Historical Dictionary of Vienna

The site was carefully chosen near the Favorita palace. The church was intended as a symbol of the eternal empire. An iconographic program was elaborated by a court historiographer. There are allusions to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, and the two columns carry the eagle and crown, symbols of the emperor. They also symbolize the iron columns of Jerusalem. The spriraling columns also bear the mottos of Charles VI (Constantia et fortitudine) and of his ancestor Charles V (plus oultre).

In the gable over a Greek portico an angel takes away a sword from the city: the liberation of Vienna from the plague. Above this scene an apotheosis of St. Charles Borromeo is to be seen. The fresco of the great copper dome was created by Johann Michael Rottmayr; it shows the Virgin and Charles Borromeo pleading for the end of the plague. The paintings are by Rottmayr, Daniel Gran, Gaetano Fanti and others.

Vienne

Le baroque est devenu le style qui manifeste la grandeur de la Monarchie. Cette association s’impose à ce point que, plus d’un siècle plus tard, François-Joseph la retrouvera naturellement quand, face à la poussée des forces dissolvantes du libéralisme et du nationalisme, il lancera un programme architectural pour affirmer la pérennité de l’ensemble habsbourgeois.

Histoire de Vienne

Charles se considerait comme chargé d’un nouveau travail d’Hercule en Espagne. Par le Traité de Rastatt (1714), il dut renoncer à l’Espagne.