Vienna: St. Stephen's Cathedral, Easter Sunday 2013

Had to break with routine and meet recent adversity head on through doing something different this Easter, and felt a need to get down to Vienna, especially to see St. Stephen's Cathedral at this sacred time of year. 

Put quite simply, I found St. Stephen's spellbinding both inside and outside.  Below, I've taken shots of the Cathedral from several different angles to get a sense of the sheer majesty and presence of the place:

In the shot above, you can see the great tile designs on the roof.

Never quite sure what to think when a great cathedral has been recently (or is still in the process of being) 'cleaned up', as the 'darkness' adds a sense of mystery and intrigue to the place.  However, St. Stephen's will gain its dark colour back again some time in the future, no doubt.

Still, whether dark or light-coloured, the cathedral exterior is incredible to behold, well worth a 10-hour journey down from Warsaw, I would say.

St. Stephen's is quite naturally full of fascinating history, and I was especially interested to find out that Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg used the heights of the cathedral to survey the Ottoman Turks in the distance during his heroic defence of the city walls during the Battle for Vienna of 1683, and that the Cathedral itself was hit by about 200 Turkish cannonballs during the siege, but was each time immediately repaired to show the Turks that the House of God was indestructible.

Below, there are another couple of shots of the ornately tiled roof:

Yesterday (Easter Sunday), I was fortunate enough to catch the back end of Mass where the singing was being done by some kind of Classical Choir, which was awesome.  The pictures below show a brief break between the Masses being held yesterday; the start of a Mass almost immediately after the one with the Classical Choir; and some of the beautiful side altar, pulpit, and statue attractions in the Cathedral:

The side altar below contains the 'Mary in the Sun' (or 'Miracle Painting') where the Virgin Mary is being angelically crowned with a Hapsburg family crown:

Also love the old pulpit above which contains the faces of Saints Ambrose; Jerome; Augustine; and Gregory (only found this out through buying a book about the history of the Cathedral from the Cathedral souvenir shop).

Finally, I felt that I had to get a last look at St. Stephen's yesterday evening before I set off back for Warsaw this morning: