Dienstag, 5.7.2011

This is what we did in our Viennese Culture class today.

This is the Stephansdom. The center of  Old Vienna. It's been the same since it was just a tiny Roman military town. 

This is the iconic roof in it's original colors, although it had to be rebuild from scratch after the War.

This is a cow wearing glasses playing backgammon against a wolf (behind the pillar) with a leather-maker in the back waiting to use the hide of the loser. It was a Middle Age political cartoon fresco about the Reformation and the Counter-reformation. Apparently the Catholics are near-sighted cows and the Protestants are wolves...

This is the Jesuit Cathedral. Apparently they really needed money, so they faked the whole inside to impress the important people. The marble is actually stucco and the ivory is plaster. 

The dome is painted to look legit, but it's totally fake.

A REAL basilisk

In the 1800's sometime, they said, "fine you can build your heathen church, but I don't wanna have to look at it!" So this Greek Orthodox Church was cleverly disguised as a carpet shop (the ornate outside was added later on) 

In Greek Orthodox, everybody stands the whole time

This is the oldest street in Vienna. It was a two way street for horse carts. the stones on the side are to keep the carts from scrapping the walls. 

This used to be attached to the city wall.

This is what happens when the Allies accidently bomb a residential area. They rebuild it really ugly in the super-cheap post-war style. Now, they can't tear it down or change it because it's "historic" 

This is the Cuckoo Clock of Vienna's famous people. Every hour a different Weiner crosses with the music of their time. This is Charlemagne. 

This is the only Jewish thing the Nazis didn't destroy, because it's dedicated to Archbishop Leopold's  engagement. But it's actually Mary and Joseph being married in the Jewish tradition. Stupid Nazis.

This is the Karlskirche. It's across the street from my classroom <3