Vienna

Rough Guides Travel, March, 2002

Ringstrasse Votivkirche Votivkirche

The first public building on the Ringstrasse – begun in 1854, even before the emperor had ordered the demolition of the city ramparts – was the Votivkirche, a monumental church built by the Vienna-born architect Heinrich Ferstel in the style of the great Gothic cathedrals of Cologne and Chartres. Built opposite the spot where a Hungarian tailor, János Libényi, had tried to stab the Emperor Franz-Josef the previous year – he was thwarted only by the emperor's collar and cap – the church was to be "a monument of patriotism and of devotion of the people to the Imperial House". For all its size, there is something spiritually lacking in the Votivkirche. Built partly to serve the large influx of soldiers to the capital following the 1848...