Alps Excursion Day 1

August 14 & 15th 2012

     I'm skipping over Tuesday in my blog because I simply didn't do anything very eventful or interesting. I realized that our trip was about half way over, and that we were going to be leaving for the Alps on Wednesday, so I decided to spend the day catching up on reading and school work I had been putting off to explore Vienna and the surrounding area. After I got out of class, I had lunch with Hans-Joerg, a friend of Kathy's that I had met during the program. We discussed topics ranging from politics to religion, before I left to spend the rest of the day studying at Vienna's famous Cafe Central. My conversation with Hans-Joerg was interesting, in addition to being an all around fascinating character,he's a historical researcher with a world renowned expertise regarding the printing press. However we really didn't conflict much in our view or conversation, we both turned out to be social welfare leftists and Buddhist leaning religious skeptics, so I can't really claim the conversation as a greatly educational experience, though I do appropriate meeting someone who shares such a similar world view to mine. Aside from this, I can really only say that spending the entire day studying at Cafe Central showed me that the reports I've herd that European cafes allow their customers to spend as much time relaxing as they'd like is somewhat exaggerated. If you stay passed the end of your waiter's shift, they do tend to get a little annoyed at you. I left the Cafe at around 7pm, ending what had been a very pleasant but routine day.
     Unlike Tuesday, Wednesday was anything but retinue. Our class met up on a bus at 9am to embark on a three day tour of the Austrian alps and the surrounding countryside, but first we planned to stop off in a small town called Eisenstat to see some of the historical sites around the town. The first thing we toured in Eisenstat was the a grandiose late renaissance style place, that served as they summer home of the powerful Esterhazy family, who ruled over the area during the Habsburg regime. The Esterhazy family were a family of Hungarian nobles who served as bankers to the Habsburg emperors, in addition to further distinguishing themselves to the Habsburg dynasty by showing an intense loyalty to the Habsburg family. The Esterhazy were thus reward with great wealth and vasts lands, such as the city of Eisenstat.
     But as impressive as the Esterhazy's palace was, it wasn't the only important site in Eisenstate. In addition to the palace, the town housed an elaborately constructed Baroque church, build to resemble Golgotha, the mountain Jesus was said to be crucified on. The building itself had the shape of an upward spiraling hill, as it sloped upward into a very distinct dome like shape. Despite it's over the top appearance, the unusual design of the church is actually quite functional if one views the church as a pilgrimage site. As one walks through the church, one see's statues at various stations through the structure that depict various scenes from Christ's life, with a focus on the passion story. The various statues and artistic depictions are ordered in such as way that if one were to view them in order, one would climb up the winding set of stair cases and climb higher and higher while watching the story of the passion play out, so that a visitor to the Church reenacts Christ's final trial, the assent up Golgotha, while contemplating the story of the passion through the art depicting it. The combination of the artwork, architectural design, and religious themes were all very intentional, as the church was specifically constructed in hopes of becoming a site of religious pilgrimage. Indeed, the effort was very successful, as the church developed a reputation for being a grate pilgrimage site during the Baroque period, and it still remains a popular site for religious pilgrimage in Austria today.
      Aside from being a popular pilgrimage site, the church is historically important at the final resting place of Joseph Haydn, as well as a display of the Esterhazy families power and wealth. The Esterhazy family employed Haydn as a court musician for many years, and sometime after he died, the Esterhazy decided they wanted him to be buried close to their center of power in Eisenstat, however sometime between his small funeral in Vienna and the Esterhazy's petition to move Haydn' remains his head had gone missing. Apparently grave robbers had stolen the composers head the the behest of a contemporary researching trying to discover the source of musical talent in the shape of people's heads. After a long and sorted drama, the head of Haydn somehow ended up in the possession of a Vienna based group called the Society of the Friends of Music, while the body of Haydn rested with the Esterhazy. In order to try to coax the Society of the Friends of Music into returning the head, the Esterhazy paid for a very elaborate and beautiful tomb to be build for the composer, however the Society was unmoved, leaving a very beautiful but unused tomb in the aforementioned church. Years latter, the situation was resolved, and Haydn's head was reunited with his body in the tomb the Esterhazy had made for him, but this was accomplished only after years of posturing.
     The last landmark that we visited before heading up to the Alps was also tied to the wealth of the Esterhazy family, however it was much less fantastic than the Baroque church and it's colorful history. After the church, we moved on the Jewish museum, build inside a massive Jewish ghetto of Eisenstat. The Esterhazy were bankers to the Habsburgs, but religious law forbid Christian from collecting interest from other Christians, meaning that Jews had to play an important role in banking and finance during this period of European history. But despite the important roles Jews placed in banking, antisemitism in the medieval and early modern period were often extreme, and Jewish populations were often driven away. Vienna, for example, expelled it's Jewish population several times during the early modern period. The Jewish ghetto in Eisenstat is different because the Jews were never expelled under the Esterhazy family, and the city retained a large Jewish population until the Nazi's took power in the 20th century. Our tour to the Jewish museum seemed to suggest that this may have been due to the Esterhazy's reliance on a Jewish community for banking. The museum and attached prayer house were build into a the remaining home of a very prominent Jewish man, how served the Esterhazy family as their court financier. His portrait hung on a wall, and our tour guide commented that his position allowed him to become a founder for the Jewish community in Eisenstat.
      Form there, we continued on with our tour, eventually visiting the Jewish grave yard before continuing on to our hostel in the Alps. As we left the town, I took the time to study the passing area from the bus window, and I realized that everything I was seeing was somehow tied to a politically important family allied with the Habsburg dynasty. Seeing this helped me to realized just how much power the empire really had during it's reign.