ST STEPHEN’S CATHEDRAL, VIENNA

St. Stephen’s Cathedral (German: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna. The current Romanesque and Gothic form of the cathedral, stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first a parish church consecrated in 1147. The most important religious building in Vienna, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, with its multi-colored tile roof, become one of the city’s most recognizable symbols.

The main part of the church contains 18 altars, with more in the various chapels. The High Altar and the Wiener Neustadt Altar (German: Wiener Neustädter Altar) are the most famous. The stone pulpit is a masterwork of late Gothic sculpture. The glory of St. Stephen’s Cathedral is its ornately patterned, richly colored roof, 111 meters long, and covered by 230,000 glazed tiles. Above the choir on the south side of the building the tiles form a mosaic of the double-headed eagle that is symbolic of the empire ruled from Vienna by the Habsburg dynasty.