Sunday, December 13, 2009

St Stephen's cathedral, the crypt


A visit to the crypt, 4.50 euros and this guy opened the door and led the way....I love crypts, we don't see crypts here in the US. This was a dark and dank crypt with loads of history, the entrails of the Habsburgs are kept here in metal containers. Their bodies in coffins are being kept at another place, so are their hearts but their 'innards' are in the crypt here. If you are wealthy and powerful like them, you can get away with burial practices like this. We saw a few coffins but I forgot who they are of. The interesting part was the mound of bodies placed there of people who died of the great plague. This guide said, 'you can go look, they're not infectious anymore'. We weren't allowed to take pictures but I got this one after we finished the tour and was paying him. It is different from the crypt at St Peter Basilica in Rome where the crypt is clean and cemented. This one is like it was in the middle ages. We would see another interesting crypt later in our trip, in England.

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