This church was re-created in Gothic style at the behest of Duke Rudolf IV
in 1359, who laid the foundation stone and earned himself the epithet of 'The
Founder' in the process. The south tower or the Südturm took 75 years to build
and was to be matched by a companion tower on the north side, but the imperial
purse withered and the Gothic style went out of fashion, so the half-completed
tower was topped off with a Renaissance cupola in 1579. Austria's
largest bell, the Pummerin or 'boomer bell' was installed here in 1952. The
Südturm is a dominating feature of the church and has a cramped viewing
platform that is worth getting to for the wonderful view of the city. Another
striking feature of the exterior of the church is the glorious tiled roof,
showing dazzling chevrons on one end and the Austrian eagle on the other.
Baden
26 kilometers outside Vienna,
the spa town of Baden dei Wien is
on the edge of the Vienna Woods. It has served visitors wanting to take the
waters since Roman times, when it was called Aquae. Today the town is still the
place to promenade between the Kurpark's bandstand, benches and elaborate
flowerbeds, to admire affluent 19th-century housing and to learn about the past
in the museums devoted to Emperor Franz Josef, Beethoven and Baden
itself. The writer M. G. Saphir called Baden a miniature
Vienna in Watercolor