Today or class meet up once again with Dr. O for a tour of the Gothic style Cathedral in the center of town, dedicated to Saint Stephen, the or the Stehandsom, as it is known in German. The church wasn't quite what I expected a Gothic Cathedral to be, as the entrance was done up in an entirely different, Romanesque style, typical of earlier churches. Thankfully, Dr. O was able to explain this curious contradiction by explaining that St. Stephen's was originally a Romanesque church, that was redone in a Gothic style by the Habsburg Emperor Fredrick the third, who wanted to attract a Bishop to Vienna in order to increase the prestige of his capital. In explaining the context of the architecture, Dr. O revealed an other surprising fact about the building, it was a Gothic style cathedral build in the early 16th century. This is very unusual, as the rest of Europe had been building in the Renaissance style for quite some time, and the works of Micheal Anglo and Leonardo Da Vinci are well known. The style was so out of place for its time that the conservative, ethnically conscious Viennese had to import the Czech Anton Pilgram, who was known as the last Gothic Stone mansion in order to finish the job.
The Viennese are know to be conservative in their architectural, but I sill find building a Gothic cathedral in the height of the Renascence to absurd. I can only assume that Fredrick the Third really wanted his bishopric, perhaps thinking a proper Gothic Cathedral would be the best thing to attract a proper bishop. Whatever the case I suspected that there was some sort of unusual motivation behind the choice to spend such a great deal of money to build a rather out dated structure. I looked up the cultural context of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Nicholas Parson's Vienna : A Cultural History, and indeed found that Fredrick the third was under an unusual pressure to prove his Christian faith. When Fredrick the third came to power, the administrative finances in Vienna were in chaos. According to Pearson, Fredrick's administrators were forced to sleep in dormitories at court, and would often have to wait long periods before they were paid for there services, if they were paid at all (125). In order to get his finances in order, Fredrick made the wise but unthinkable decision of resuming financial relations with Vienna's Jews, whom served as bankers, money lenders and creditors to the empire, as they were excluded from religious laws that prevented Christian usury (the charging of interest) (Pearsons 123-125).
Jewish money lending restored his finances, but Fredrick's relationship with the Jews made him extremely unpopular with his nobles, who chastised him as "King of the Jews". I suspect that Fredrick's decision to build St. Stephan's, and his decisions to build it as Gothic may be heavily linked to a political need to distance himself from this antisemitic backlash. Fredrick build a church in a style that was not new and grand, but rather one that was highly iconic of the Church. I believe that Gothic style makes sense if one wishes to prioritize Catholic piety over displaying power and wealth. My belief is further bolstered by the fact that Fredrick the third is the only Hasberg Emperor buried in the Church. He rests in a highly visible marble alter that he himself designed. Unfortunately for Fredrick, he died many years before the tomb was finished, and had to be lied to rest in his carefully manicured resting place well after he was first berried. However in the end, St. Stephen's got it's bishop, and the credit went to Fredrick, whom everyone now associated with the cathedral.
St. Stephan's Cathedral has grown to be the center of town in Vienna, with the towers Fredrick oversaw being visible all over town. However the Gothic nature of the building, and the fact that Fredrick went well out of his way to ensure that the cathedral would be memorable and visible for ages suggests to me that this was more than a simple testament to the glory of God. I imagine Fredrick, who had received a great deal of humiliation throughout this reign wanted to ensure that he would be remembered far differently than he had been perceived (Pearson 125). For this reason he chose to build himself a grad monument that his contemporaries, and generations yet to come would associated with Christian majesty, namely, the Gothic Style.
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