Vienna Imperial Vault
The Kapuzinerkirche or Capuchin Church in Vienna is a roman catholic church of the Capuchin order, a branch of the Franciscan order, located in the Inner City of Vienna. Dedicated to "Our Lady Mary of the Angels", it was built in the first half of the 17th century and houses the Kaisergruft, the Imperial Vault of the Habsburg dynasty.
The church is a baroque but surprisingly stern and simple one-nave hall church structure with two side chapels, the Imperial Chapel and the Pieta Chapel, a pediment portal and a rose window on the facade, a barrel vault interior with frescoes by Hans Fischer and a marble altar with paintings by Peter von Strudel.
The crypt underneath the church encompasses nine vault rooms, containing the tombs of 138 members of the Habsburg family, among them 12 emperors and 17 empresses. All the Austrian Emperors have been buried here, since 1633, with just a few exceptions. The copper and bronze coffins, decorated with angels, medallions and imperial symbols contain only the embalmed bodies, without the internal organs and hearts, which are traditionally kept in urns in the Augustinian Church and the St. Stephan's cathedral.
The most luxuriant tomb of the Kaisergruft is the late baroque and rococo double sarcophagus of Emperor Franz Stephan von Lothringen and Maria Theresia, in form of a state bed surrounded with statues, mourning figures and surmounted by a triumphant angel. It is also decorated with the crowns of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Jerusalem. It was designed by Tirolese sculptor Balthasar Ferdinand Moll, over a decade before the deaths of the imperial pair.
Moll also designed the sarcophagus of Charles VI in he Caroline Vault, a magnificent work of art supported by four lions and decorated with the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Hungary and Castile, as well as a crowned skull.
The Franz Josef Vault houses the bodies of emperor Franz Josef I and his wife, empress Elisabeth or Sissi, whose poignant coffin is always decorated with fresh flowers.
The Leopoldine Vault is also called the Angel Vault, for it houses the coffins of 12 children.
