Last year, along with two of my best friends and my sister, we decided to go on a quick city break picking Vienna as our destination thinking that it’s a fairly good choice in December when we could also take advantage of the Christmas Markets you can find quite often in town, and which we wanted to see.
So along with the very cold weather that kept us away from sunny days and colorful images but actually quick walks in town during light rains, drizzle, and short daylight, we did our best to see as much as possible and experience a bit of everything Vienna has to offer.
Since there is a huge list of what you can see in town, we wrote down our itinerary in such a way that will include palaces, museums, the zoo, towers, but also churches.
We knew that it was literally impossible to see everything, but since we still wanted to get the vibe each of those places has to offer to the tourists, we decided to see a bit of everything, also including Capuchin Church on our list.
We didn’t know much about this church but since Austria is very rich in history and also has connections with my home country, Romania, we thought that it would be a must-see during our stay, even if we would still learn the historical events it has been through from other sources since there wasn’t a guided tour.
Having early walks in December with cold temperatures, it felt like bliss to enter the church and sit for a few minutes while our bodies were taking a break from the negative degrees and our minds forgot about all kinds of problems that keep our brains busier than they should.
Even from the beginning, we felt the whole place like a warm hug that everyone needs more often than they realize, and where you can sit for a while without the care of being judged which religion you belong to, which is quite a sensitive subject but yet a serious problem on some parts of the globe.
There was a gate made entirely of glass that separated those who wanted to light up a candle from those who were either praying or exploring the church, which I noticed being practiced in more churches from different countries but which is not also the case for Romania since it has the dedicated spaces for lighting candles outside the building.
As soon as we properly entered the church, right above our heads was resting an impressive pipe organ which caught my attention, but about which I couldn’t find any information even though it was looking pretty nice from what I’ve seen in the other churches visited both in my country and internationally.
Even though the church became more famous for the crypt it shelters which I also visited alone since my friends felt a bit strange to walk through all the things you will discover in a future post, I still
consider that even the church itself deserves a visit, especially that you can do it for free and it will be a loss not to enter it.
The Kapuzinerkirche, commonly known as the Church of Saint Mary of the Angels or shortly, as Capuchin Church dates since 1632 and it’s a Catholic Church run by the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin which was donated by will of Anna of Tyrol (1585–1618) who was the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Matthias of Habsburg.
However, even if this action happened in 1599, the construction was delayed by a war that was undergoing or recently started, which made it be finished only in 1632 after having Matthias’ successor Ferdinand II lead the country.
While there are numerous important names that are resting in the Imperial Crypt of the Capuchin Church, you can still find the tombs of friar Marco d’Aviano (d. 1699) and architect Donato Felice d’Allio (1761) resting within the church, which were carefully taken care of with the passage of time.
The Capuchin Church doesn’t remark itself through colors but rather through simplicity and calmness that can be noticed even from the outside making it a building that some can pass without even noticing. Though, the real unique architectural feature rests inside which endured the test of time with very few damages incurred from wars and other political upheavals, but also through all the gothic sculptures dating since the 14th century and the religious decorations that can be found at any step when visiting the church.
The part of the church that obviously caught my attention the most was the main altar which even though was so rich in details, sculptures, and decorations, felt like bein carefully designed without getting the feeling of ‘too much’ or stepping on the side of having that kitsch which can be found in other similar places.
Though, along with the beauty that eyes could capture during the entire stay, there was also the familiar feeling of being safe and welcome in a place that I was seeing for the first time, which is something that doesn’t happen too often but which no doubt it saves a special place in my heart when it does.
Once again, visiting Capuchin Church felt like both an honor and bliss for all of us, especially since we made it into such an old building with lots of history resting on its ‘shoulders’ that still keeps everything alive in the 21st century which is not looking too bright lately. The church can be visited any day between 10 AM and 7 PM for free, but it’s best to check twice before making your way there as sometimes it might be closed due to all kinds of holidays.
The Capuchin Church is located on the Street Tegetthoffstraße 2, 1010 Wien, Austria in the 1st district of the inner city next to Neuer Markt which provides many routes either with a bus or a metro which is also the one we picked even though we had to walk a bit more until reaching our destination.
Other places I’ve seen during my stay in Vienna:
- The Austrian Parliament Building
- Capuchin Church (Katholische Kapuzinerkirche “Hl. Maria von den Engeln”)
- The tour of the Christmas Markets from Vienna, Austria
more coming soon…
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Gabriela Travels 
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