A Walk Through Vienna’s Central Cemetery

As I needed to go to the art supply store way out in Simmering on Saturday, I decided to check one more site off my Vienna Tourism wishlist.  It took about 20 minutes for my classmate Rachel and I to walk from the art store to the Central Cemetery (nowhere near the center of town, but central as in main) and then we spent about 3 hours walking around …  we barely scratched the surface (pun intended).  I’ve marked our trail in red.  It’s huge! Over 3 million are buried here from all religions – more than anywhere in Europe.

The history is interesting, but you can read up on that on their website.  Instead, here are a few highlights from our visit.

First – the walk there: Simmering is not an attractive part of town  – car dealerships and such.  We were delighted, however, to pass a pub with live traditional music outside. Nice.

The Way In & Wild Encounters:

We entered the cemetery through Door 1, and I’m glad we did. It’s not the main entrance, and so we were spared the typical tourist feel of Door 2 (vendors, tour bus, horse wagons, maps, signage, etc.).  Instead, we followed our intuition, leading us past interesting grave markers and into the old Jewish cemetery.  We had 2 very special encounters with deer there – long eye contact as they hid in the tall grasses and eventually trotted off.  I also saw a huge jack rabbit – or a small deer….not sure which.

In the Details:

I could have taken thousands of photos – but didn’t, thinking of the work that would involve (I’ve spent way too much time at the computer lately).  Here are a few though – of things that caught my attention – beautiful, interesting, and strange (mostly the grave to the unknown artist…. you’ll figure out which one it is).

Not Just the Dead and Buried:

At one point, I felt pulled to a very different energy in an ethnic section we weren’t able to identify.  Instead of ancient graves, this one had a lot of fresh ones – piles of dirt with simple wooden crosses on them.  There were also very ornate ones from recent decades. There were a few families there sitting on benches and talking to their deceased relatives.  This was the saddest part of the visit.  It took us out of history and into the present. Not too many photos here.

Multifaith:

Our walk then took us through the Buddhist section.  I really liked the fact that all are welcomed to rest here, no matter of their faith or status while alive.  As the website says, however, not everyone is equal after death – some above-ground “neighbourhoods” were definitely richer and better maintained than others.

Dr. Karl Lueger Memorial Church:

We approached this huge structure from behind and found two of its monumental entrances closed.  I felt it strange that such an imposing structure be left empty and unused.  I found myself pondering about that.  After resting in one of the covered footpaths lined with crypts, we walked around the building and found its main door – open.  Ah, makes me think of life at times. Although it’s affectionately named after one of Vienna’s popular mayors buried there, it’s actually the Church of Saint Charles of Borromeo .  It suffered extensive damage during the war and in subsequent years, but now it looks great, shortly after major renovations.  The art deco style definitely appealed to me  – much more so than the usual church art.  The acoustics were pretty good too as another visitor tested out.

Final Home for the Famous:

We then found the section of the cemetery reserved for famous musicians (there’s also one for politicians, sports figures, various other kinds of artists, etc.).  See if you can identify their graves from the photos – click on an image to see it large and then navigate through them all. The monument to Mozart in the middle, however, was only built as a tourist draw. He’s actually not buried in this cemetery.  It was neat to observe a group of Korean tourists place flowers at Beethoven’s grave.  I could still understand a few words, but Korean is definitely at the bottom of the list of languages I’m familiar with (despite 3 years of living there).

The Way In Being the Way Out and Vice Versa:

We found out on our way out that there’s a bus that goes through the cemetery at regular city transit prices.  I recommend it to get an overall feel as it’s 2.4 square kilometres (590 acres) large.  By the time we got to the main entrance – Door 2, however, we were too tired and still had a long afternoon/evening of work at school ahead of us.  I may just return if I have time before I leave, especially since I read about the Park of Peace and Power , “designed according to the old traditions of geomancy (originally: divinations from the earth) and landscape gardening.” Click the link above – good read – I’ve rarely seen energy systems of the land and human soul written about on tourism websites.  Cool!  Sounds like a real gift for grievers of all kinds.