Our trip to Vienna was quite a structured one - with most of the landmarks/attractions carefully planned and put into an itinerary. One of the attractions we visited during our stay there was the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery of Vienna), one of the largest cemeteries in Europe and possibly the most famous in Vienna. It's actually situated in Simmering - an outer region of the city, and was established in 1863.
It was a cloudy, foggy day when we visited the cemetery...and the cemetery was really, really quiet. But it was so peaceful too...
Famous composers like Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Salieri and the Strauss family were buried in this cemetery, and their graves were grouped together in one part of the cemetery. There was also a cenotaph that commemorated Mozart, also situated in this area. Mozart is actually buried in the nearby St Marx cemetery.
I spotted Beethoven's, Schubert's, Brahms' and Strauss' graves...and of course Beethoven's grave was the first I noticed. Well - according to our friend (who went with us), Beethoven's grave 'earned' the most number of flowers during spring and summer! Lots of people would come and lay flowers at his grave...looks like he is still very popular here!
Spotted some of the other graves - some were more intricate, others simpler.
Reached the Dr. Karl Lueger-Gedächtniskirche - a church right in the middle of the cemetery (well it appeared to be in the middle as it was so prominent from most parts of the cemetery...), and we decided to explore it further...after all, it IS a prominent landmark!
Was so amazed by the architecture within the building...check out the wonderful details on the ceiling, the sides...everywhere!!! I especially like the ceiling - it looks as if someone stitched a blue cloth with gold stars and pasted it right on the dome...absolutely amazing.
Zoomed in a little more and I managed to capture lots of the wonderful details on the walls...as well as the details on the 2nd floor.
Paid extra attention to the gorgeous dome too - it's just so magical!
As we were leaving the church, I took a couple more pics...and these also turned out pretty decent!
Since it was getting colder and colder by the minute, we decided to leave the cemetery, to head back to the city, for more exploration...
And that's it for the cemetery tour! In the next post, I'll be posting pics of the Musicians' Walks - mainly of Beethoven and Strauss. See ya soon!