St. Charles Church & Antonio Vivaldi

The most important sacred building north of the Alps

Today, the Karlskirche is not only the Viennese branch of the Prague "Knights of the Cross of the Red Star" and one of the most impressive buildings in Vienna. In recent years it has also developed into an outstanding venue in the Viennese concert scene. It is a lively centre for historical performance practice of the works of Mozart and Vivaldi and the seat of the ORCHESTRA 1756, which regularly gives concerts here. In the year after the last great plague epidemic, Emperor Charles VI vowed to build a church for his namesake, Charles Borromeo. An architectural competition was held, in which Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach won against Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena and Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, among others. Construction began as early as 1716 and was continued by his son Joseph Emanuel after Fischer's death in 1723 and completed in 1737. The church originally had a direct line of sight to the imperial Hofburg and was also the imperial patron parish church until 1918.

In 1741 Antonio Vivaldi was buried in the cemetery near the Karlskirche, the "Spittaler Gottesacker". Today, the building of the Technical University stands on this site. Like Mozart's grave, Vivaldi's place of death has not been preserved. Today, only a simple stone plaque commemorates this great composer.