This is as good a point as any to bring up the manner in which the Habsburgs were buried. To quote a website: In Vienna there was the custom of separate burials for monarchs, princes, dukes and higher-ranking nobles. That is why the corpses of the Habsburgs are in the Capuchin Crypt, the entrails in the crypt of St. Stephen's Cathedral and the hearts in the "Herzl Crypt" in the Augustinian Church.
There is a lively discussion among historians as to what exactly this ritual refers to. It is possible that the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were models. There were also practical reasons, because the corpse could be better preserved, especially in the case of longer evacuations and laying out. Political backgrounds tend to be excluded.
Separate entombment was practiced long before the Habsburgs. Especially during the crusades, when many crusaders died far from home, it was customary to remove their organs, to boil the corpse with red wine in order for it to better survive the long return journey. The organs of Barbararossa (1122-1190) and Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) were buried in other places.
This unusual Habsburg protocol was practiced until 1878. The entrails of the dead were removed, wrapped in silk scarves, placed in alcohol and the containers soldered shut. The heart as the seat of the soul was given a special place in a heart urn.
Founder of this tradition is said to be Ferdinand III. (1608-1657). He wanted the hearts of the Habsburgs to be laid out in the Augustinian Church. His successor, Ferdinand IV., venerated the Madonna of Loreto with her shrine in the Augustinian Church and decreed that his heart should be buried there.
This custom was particularly widespread among the Habsburgs in the 16th and 17th centuries. Later there were many exceptions. Emperor Franz Joseph was strictly against it and his body was completely buried in the Capuchin crypt.
The last emperor, Charles I, who died in exile on Madeira, was also buried there, but his heart is in the Swiss monastery of Muri, together with the heart of his wife Zita. Her body, however, rests in the Capuchin crypt and her burial was considered the last official imperial burial in 1989.
The son of the two, Otto Habsburg, is also in the Capuchin crypt, but his heart was buried at his own request in the Hungarian monastery of Pannonhalma. He was raised as a child by the monks of the monastery and had a special bond with Hungary.
Nowadays, this type of burial is generally no longer allowed in Austria. However, exemptions can be requested from the Ministry of Health.
As I think I mentioned before, the sole female non-Habsburg buried in the Capuchin crypt (body intact, one assumes) was MT's governess Karoline von Fuchs-Mollard, "die Fuchsin", because MT ordered it. The sole male non-Habsburg is Charles de Lorraine, Prince Bishop of Trier, who died surprisingly when visiting Vienna in 1715. (As this was two years before MT was born, his being buried there had nothing to do with her later marrying one of his relations and everything with his high standing as a prince of the church, one assumes.)
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Re: Various questions from Mildred
Date: 2021-02-28 05:27 am (UTC)In Vienna there was the custom of separate burials for monarchs, princes, dukes and higher-ranking nobles. That is why the corpses of the Habsburgs are in the Capuchin Crypt, the entrails in the crypt of St. Stephen's Cathedral and the hearts in the "Herzl Crypt" in the Augustinian Church.
There is a lively discussion among historians as to what exactly this ritual refers to. It is possible that the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were models. There were also practical reasons, because the corpse could be better preserved, especially in the case of longer evacuations and laying out. Political backgrounds tend to be excluded.
Separate entombment was practiced long before the Habsburgs. Especially during the crusades, when many crusaders died far from home, it was customary to remove their organs, to boil the corpse with red wine in order for it to better survive the long return journey. The organs of Barbararossa (1122-1190) and Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) were buried in other places.
This unusual Habsburg protocol was practiced until 1878. The entrails of the dead were removed, wrapped in silk scarves, placed in alcohol and the containers soldered shut. The heart as the seat of the soul was given a special place in a heart urn.
Founder of this tradition is said to be Ferdinand III. (1608-1657). He wanted the hearts of the Habsburgs to be laid out in the Augustinian Church. His successor, Ferdinand IV., venerated the Madonna of Loreto with her shrine in the Augustinian Church and decreed that his heart should be buried there.
This custom was particularly widespread among the Habsburgs in the 16th and 17th centuries. Later there were many exceptions. Emperor Franz Joseph was strictly against it and his body was completely buried in the Capuchin crypt.
The last emperor, Charles I, who died in exile on Madeira, was also buried there, but his heart is in the Swiss monastery of Muri, together with the heart of his wife Zita. Her body, however, rests in the Capuchin crypt and her burial was considered the last official imperial burial in 1989.
The son of the two, Otto Habsburg, is also in the Capuchin crypt, but his heart was buried at his own request in the Hungarian monastery of Pannonhalma. He was raised as a child by the monks of the monastery and had a special bond with Hungary.
Nowadays, this type of burial is generally no longer allowed in Austria. However, exemptions can be requested from the Ministry of Health.
As I think I mentioned before, the sole female non-Habsburg buried in the Capuchin crypt (body intact, one assumes) was MT's governess Karoline von Fuchs-Mollard, "die Fuchsin", because MT ordered it. The sole male non-Habsburg is Charles de Lorraine, Prince Bishop of Trier, who died surprisingly when visiting Vienna in 1715. (As this was two years before MT was born, his being buried there had nothing to do with her later marrying one of his relations and everything with his high standing as a prince of the church, one assumes.)