Stephansdome

Today we met with Dr. O for a tour of the Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, or Stephansdome. It is located right in the city center and right next to a newer building that could potentially overshadow its beauty in the eyes of some people. And Dr. O really wanted us to think about a couple questions about it – how did the church affect me? And how would it have been received in the Middle Ages? Finally, what about the contrast between old and new? My answer to the first question was it is amazingly beautiful, it stands out right in the city center, it is taller than all other buildings, it is really the landmark of the city. For the next question I would say that it was probably received even better than it is today because it would have been that much bigger back then and it would have been a place for daily religious activity. The contrast between old and new is interesting because I think that the newer building is unnecessary, in my opinion it definitely does not overshadow the Stephansdome, but it just does not fit in with the whole city center area and the older feel.

Dr. O emphasized that the cathedral was a symbol of the love of God, and people needed religion, so that is why this was constructed. It was built during the Babenburg reign in the mid-12^th century. On the inside we started out with the Anton Pilgram and his pulpit in the middle of the cathedral. This was easily one of the most amazing pieces of art I have seen in my life, the level of detail is incredible. The pulpit was around 1500 AD out of 3 blocks of sandstone. There are toads at the bottom of the stairs of the pulpit which are meant to be evil, they are followed by lizards which symbolize God/sun, and then dogs on top which symbolize faith/God. Everything that is going on with the pulpit works to putting faith above all, and there is a man that is peeping out of window, which is supposed to be Pilgram himself.

Gothic architecture on the interior is actually pretty easy to figure out after getting a tour of the inside, basically, what looks simpler is early gothic and what looks more complex is late gothic. This can be seen in the ribbing of the ceilings. The simple intersection of 4 ribs is early gothic, while those consisting of more ribs is late gothic.

The structure of the entire building lends it to having large areas where stained glass could be placed. There are buttresses on the outside that support the structure and allow for this. Therefore the building was able to have these amazingly beautiful stained glass windows.

According to Dr. O there has been some concern about the impact of the U1 subway train and the structural integrity of the cathedral. They measured the seismic readings of the building and found that the subway does make the building shake a little bit, so that will continue to be looked at in the future.