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AUSTRIA

RUDOLF THE FOUNDER
In 13 59, Duke Rudolf IV of Austria, later knovvn
as Rudolf the F ounder, laid the foundation
stone for the Gothic enlargement o f what was
then a R om anes que church (Romanesque S ty/e, On the exterior wall of the choir is a pulpit built after
see p.1 22) Born in 1 339, Rudolf became a the Christian victory over the Turks at B elgrade In 1456.
duke in 1 358 and campaigned tirelessly to have 1 twas from here that the Italian F ranciscan J ohannes
Capistrano (1386-1456) is s aid to have preached against
S t S tephen's Church granted its independence
the Turkish invasion while on a vis it to Austrl a In 145 1.
from the bis hop of Passau and elevated to the Capistrano had been appointed governor or P erugla,
status of a cathedral. B ut it was not unti I 1469 but was i mpri so ned while on a peace m lssl on. Arter
that Vienna, under F rederick Ill, became a having a vision of St. Francis , he joined the Franc iscans
and bec ame a priest in 1425. In 145 4 he assembled troops
diocese in its own nght On Rudolf's death in
for the Crusade against the T urks. This event Is depleted
1365, a monument to h1m was placed 1n front in the statue above the pulpit showing Capistrano tram-
of the high altar In 1945, 1t was moved to pling on a Turkish invader. He was canonized In 1690.
the lades' Cho1r Rudolf IS bt.r1ed 1n the <ileal
vault, next to fls wife, Katharina

CATACOMBS
The extensive catac ombs beneath the
cathedral were excavated 1n around 1470 to
relieve pressure on Vienna's ma1 n cemetery.
For the next 300 years, the people of Vienna
were interred in the catacombs and by the time
E mperor J oseph II put a stop to the practice in
1783, around 10,000 of them had been laid to
rest here. At the heart of the complex is the
Habs burg Vault built by Rudolf IV in 1363. This
hous es 15 sarcophagi belonging to the early
H abs burgs and 56 urns, which contain the
entr a i Is of the later H abs burgs who, from 1633
onward, were buried in the impe rial vault of
the Capuchin Monastery C hurch. Vienna's
archbishops are interred beneath the Apostles'
Choir in the Episcopal vault of 1953.

ANTON PILGRAM
One of the cathedral's lead1ng craftsmen was
Anton PUg am (c 1460-1515), a master-budder
from Brunn. H1s sandstone pulpit (1514-15)
mside the nave conta1ns portr ats of the Four
Fathers of the Church (theologans representirg
four p~siO!]'lOmiC temperaments) and is
considered a masterp1ece of late-Gothic stone
srulpture Pilgram even 1 nduded a portrait of
himself as a "watcher at the window" beneath
the pulpit steps. The re is another portrait of
Pilgram in the cathe dral. Here, the builder and
sculptor is sho wn peeping through a window
into the church. Pilgram s igned this work with
the monogra m "MAP 1513."