# Who is Buried in the Habsburg Imperial Crypt? Part 1: 1618-1800s

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh8jyIkIEig
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/40584

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

Hapsburgs buried in the imperial crypt part 1 1633 to 1800s. Death is called the great equalizer. And while everyone must die, if you're a Holy Roman Emperor, eternal rest comes with some elaborate bronzeplated perks. Since 1633, dearly departed members of the Hapsburg dynasty have been interred in an extensive catacomb beneath the Capucian church in Vienna, Austria. There are 150 people or at least parts of people buried here, including 12 emperors, 20 empresses, and 15 other monarchs, as well as one Protestant and one devoted governness who wasn't a Hapsburg at all. Let's explore the 10 burial vaults of the Imperial Crypt. Dig up the past and find out which Hapsburgs are spending eternity together. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Imperial Crypt and exume some of its secrets myself. The journey begins by leaving the bustling city behind and descending down a long flight of stairs into an eerily quiet, softly lit, and neatly maintained catacomb. The first chamber is the Leopold vault, where 16 sarcophagi are lined up in rows. This can be a bit jarring for those of us used to British or Americanerary customs where human remains are much more obscured. For example, at Westminster Abbey and St. George's Chapel, the resting place of the British Royals, there are monuments on display, but the actual coffins containing royal remains are kept far below in subterranean vaults, which are strictly off limits to the public. However, Catholic Germanic burial culture is noticeably different. Holy Roman emperors saw themselves as heirs to the ancient Roman emperors. So, they elected to be buried in the same way. Ancient Romans borrowed their tradition of lying the dead in elaborate sarcophagi from the Egyptians by way of the Greeks. Sarcophagus means flesh eating as limestone facilitated decomposition. However, the earliest sarcophagi in the Imperial vault are made of an alloy of bronze and tin coated with shellac, which was intended to preserve the bodies inside. Meanwhile, other Western Christian cultures evolved traditions of burying their dead deep in the earth and out of sight. By the 1500s, six feet was standard in England as it was considered a safe depth to protect the living from corpses infected with bubanic plague. In Catholicism, there is a strong belief in the holiness and incorruptibility of the corpses of saints. They are put on display and venerated. Likewise, the bodies of popes and Catholic royals are often on full display while lying in state. Martin Luther rejected the veneration of saints, so Protestant royals are never caught dead outside their coffins. While exploring the Imperial Crypt, it is a bit unnerving to realize that you're only a few feet and layers of bronze away from the actual corpses of centuries dead emperors. But the sarcophagi are soldered shut, so no worries about winding up in a Hapsburg version of Thriller. This was also important for trapping in smells. When a Hapsburg died, they were imbalmed. Their heart and viscera were removed and placed in separate urns, which were usually interred in a different location. The heart crypt in the Hofborg palace protects 54 Hapsburg heart urns and the ducal crypt below St. Steven's Cathedral houses 72 organ earns. This practice emerged during the crusades when noble crusaders died in the holy land. It was impractical and unsanitary to transport their entire body back to Europe. So their heart alone was carried back to their family. In time, this became a way to memorialize important individuals in more than one location. The rest of a Hapsburg body was placed in a wooden

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coffin wrapped in silk, black with gold trim for rulers, red with silver trim for everyone else. The coffins have two locks. One is kept by the capucian guard of the crypt, the other in the imperial treasury at the Hofborg palace. After the funeral, the coffin was taken to the entrance of the imperial crypt. A funeral official knocked on the chapel door. The monks inside asked who was there. The official answered, "It is the body of Emperor Empress or Prince so and so. " The monk replied that he knew of no such person. This dialogue was repeated two times until the official finally said that the person who had died was a poor sinner. Upon hearing this, the monks opened the doors and allowed the coffin to be taken inside, placed in its elaborate sarcophagus, and sealed. Now that we know how they were buried, let's meet the dead Hapsburgs. The founders's vault. The capucian cloister and burial vault was first conceived by Anna of Tyroll, wife of Emperor Matias. He stole the throne from his mentally unstable brother Rudolph II, but he wasn't much of an improvement. She was a powerful and influential empress. She moved the court from Prague to Vienna, establishing the city as a center of culture and learning and the capital of the empire from then on. She hoped to be buried with her husband near their home, Hofborg Palace. In 1617, she wrote a will bequething money to build a church and tomb. Anna died one year later of illness at just 33. With the funds released, construction began. Emperor Matias died the next year at 62. Their bodies were temporarily placed in the poor Clare monastery in Vienna. As the couple had no children, their cousin Ferdinand II became emperor. The fanatical Catholic persecuted Protestants and sparked the 30 years war, one of the bloodiest conflicts in European history. The fight slowed progress on the crypt which was not ready to receive the mouldering remains of its founders until 1633. Meanwhile, Ferdinand built his own crypt in Gratz where he was buried in 1637. He expected it to be the perpetual resting place of his descendants. However, his son Ferdinand III had other plans. He was a pragmatist and was able to bring the war to a peaceful conclusion. But he was struck by many personal tragedies. Four of his children died in infancy. His beloved wife, Maria Anna of Spain, died of fever at 39. She was pregnant and her daughter was cut from her body alive but died a few hours later and was buried in her coffin. Ferdinand's second wife, 17-year-old Maria Leopoldina, died in childbirth. Next, his son and heir, Ferdinand IV, who had already been elected king of the Romans to secure the succession, died of smallpox at 21. The berieved emperor didn't want his loved ones laid to rest 200 km away in Gratz. He wanted them nearby in Vienna, so he placed them in Matias and Anna's small burial chamber, which was then known as the Angel's Vault. When Ferdinand III himself died at 48, he was placed in the now rather cramped vault. His son Leupold I ordered the construction of a much larger burial vault under the nave of the church. He had his father, mother, stepmothers, and siblings moved into the Leopold vault. The remains of 12 children who originally rested in the angel's vault were placed in the Columbium or wall niches. Four children of Emperor Ferdinand III, Maxmillian, Philip, Terresa Maria, and Ferdinand. Seven children of Emperor Leupold I Ferdinand Johan Maria Anna Maria Sophia Maria Yosfa Christina and Maria Margaretta and an unnamed son of Arch Duchess Maria Anna Yosfa. All of these babies died under the age of two. Tragically, over 25% of the remains in the Imperial Crypt are those of children under five, and at least three mothers were buried with their babies.

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While infant mortality was devastatingly high at the time, the Hapsburg's habit of inbreeding was disastrous to the health of their children. In the center of the children's columbium is an ern containing the heart of Maria Anna. She was a daughter of Leopold I. She married Kingo V of Portugal and served as Queen Regent for her son Jose I. Though her body was buried in Lisbon, she requested that her heart be sent to Vienna to rest with her parents and siblings. Further into the crypt lie 16 sarcophagi containing Emperor Ferdinand III, his three wives, Maria Anna of Spain, Maria Leopoldina and his widow Eleanor Gonzaga. She was a dazzling consort who founded a literary academy and patronized musical theater. Two of her daughters, Eleanor, Queen of Poland, and Maria Anna Yosfa, Electress of the Palatinate, are buried next to her. Leopold I also had three wives. The first was his niece, Margarita Teresa of Spain. The emperor insisted that his bride call him uncle. She was the sister of tragically inbred King Carlos II, known as the Hex. She was healthier than her brother, but that was a very low bar. Three of the couple's four children died in infancy and are buried in the Colombia. Margareta blamed the deaths of her children on the Jewish people and persuaded her husband to expel them from Vienna. She died during her fifth pregnancy at the age of 21. Her only surviving child, Maria Antonia, became actress of Bavaria, but died of postpartum infection at 23. Liupold next married his second cousin, Claudia Felicitas. She had a beautiful singing voice, but died at 22, giving birth to her second child. Her body was buried in the Dominican church, but her heart was placed in an urn in the corner of the Leupold crypt. third wife and third cousin Eleanor Magdalena of Nuremberg was highly intelligent and influential. She was also genetically far removed enough that the couple had 10 children, six of whom survived. Leopold Yoseph who died at two, Maria Magdalena who had several failed marriage negotiations and died single at 54. Maria Teresa who died at 12, and Maria Yosfa, who died of smallpox at 16, are buried here. Two of Eleanor's grandchildren are also in the Leopold crypt. Leupold Yoan, son of Emperor Carl V 6th and the last male in the Hapsburg line. He would have been emperor had he not died at 7 months. His berieved parents donated his weight in silver to the church. Three daughters followed, the youngest of whom Maria Amalia died at 6 and is interred near her brother. The Carl Vault. Emperor Leupold died at 65 after an impressive 47-year rule. He made his two surviving sons, Yseph and Carl, sign a pact of peace, which didn't last. Yseph and his wife, Vilhelm, had three children, but their only son, Liupold, died of hydrophilis before his first birthday. Ysef had numerous love affairs and contracted syphilis, which he passed to his wife, rendering her infertile. He began a project to add another vault to the crypt, but he fell ill with smallpox before it was completed. From his sick bed, he promised his long-suffering wife that if he survived, he would remain faithful to her. He didn't have to keep that promise as he died at 32. His brother Carl V 6th completed the new vault and named it after himself. He also pushed his nieces out of the line of succession and ensured that his own daughter, Maria Teresa, would inherit the throne. Carl died at 55. Some reports claim he accidentally ate deathcap mushrooms during a hunting trip. The two feuding brothers are buried on opposite sides of the Carl crypt. Ever the ladies man, Yseph has both an urn containing his wife, Vil Helmina's heart, and his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Christine, on his side. While Carl V 6th lies next to his father Leopold I, his sister Maria Elizabeth, who never married and was sent by her brother to govern the Netherlands, and his second daughter Maria Anna, who also took the

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post of governor of the Netherlands during the reign of her elder sister, Maria Teresa. She married her sister's husband's brother, Prince Charles Alexander of Lraine. But she died at 26, giving birth to a stillborn daughter, who is buried in a separate sarcophagus, now in the Maria Teresa crypt. As the tombs in this vault were created at the height of RCOO style, they are some of the most elaborately decorated. Made of expensive solid bronze, covered in reliefs and silver and goldplated sculptures of the dearly departed, their achievements and symbols of royalty and death. Carl V 6th tomb includes the famous sculpture of death wearing the imperial crown. Next, we move further west into the Maria Teresa vault. One of the most powerful women in history. She reformed and modernized the empire. Her husband Francis I Steven, who was her cousin, held the title of Holy Roman Emperor. But Maria Teresa was really in charge. She had to battle her cousin, Maria Amalia's husband, Carl of Bavaria, in the War of Austrian succession. She said she would have ridden into battle herself if she hadn't nearly always been pregnant, but she won anyway. The Empress gave birth to 16 children, 12 of whom rest in the Imperial Crypt. Three of her daughters died in early childhood. Maria Elizabeth at six of a stomach ailment. Maria Karolina at one of tetany and another Maria Karolina was still born. The empress was tormented by the thought that her baby had not been baptized in time, but her husband assured her that the little one's soul had been saved. After the death of this child, Maria Teresa decided to expand the imperial crypt once more to accommodate her large family. This vault went even further west, completely past the church above. As it is under the garden, a dome was added to admit natural light. After the crypt's completion in 1754, the first person laid to rest there was Maria Teresa's governness, Countess Caroline von Fush Molat. When the woman who had raised her and her closest confidant died at 73, the Empress ordered that the Countess have the honor of being the only non-Hapsburg buried in the imperial crypt. In 1762, an epidemic of smallpox ravaged the empire and carried off two of the Empress's children, 15-year-old Carl Ysef and 12-year-old Yana Gabriella. Carl had long been a rival to his elder brother, Ysef, and made it clear that he intended to challenge him for the throne. On his deathbed, Carl told his mother, "You should not weep for me, for if I had lived, I would have brought you many more tears. " Smallox also took the life of Yseph's young bride, 19-year-old Isabella of Parma. He loved her dearly, but she was more enamored of his sister, Maria Christina. She is buried elsewhere, but her only daughter, who died at one day old, is buried near her mother's dear friend. When Isabella was 6 months pregnant, she contracted smallpox and went into premature labor. The baby Christina died after birth, and Isabella, griefstricken, followed her a few days later. The daughter's tiny tomb rests at her mother's feet. Yseph was heartbroken and devoted himself to his surviving daughter. In 1765, his father, Francis the First Steven, died suddenly while returning from the opera in his carriage. Though he was frequently and indiscreetly unfaithful to the Empress, Maria Teresa loved him dearly. Upon his death, she went into mourning and wore black for the rest of her life. As she was still only a woman, her son Yseph was promoted to emperor and her co-ruler. Mother and son disagreed frequently. Now that he was emperor, the pressure was on Yseph to produce a male heir. So he remarried Maria Yosfa of Bavaria. She was Empress for just 2 years before smallpox got her at 28. Maria Teresa took her 16-year-old daughter, Maria Yosfa, with her to the Imperial Crypt to pray at the unsealed tomb of the dead empress. 2 days later

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the Arch Duchess developed a smallox rash and died. Maria Teresa blamed herself, though her daughter could not have caught the disease from a corpse and was likely already infected. The same epidemic killed Emperor Ysef's only living child, 7-year-old Maria Teresa, who was buried near her mother and sister. Empress Maria Teresa herself caught smallox. She survived, but her health was damaged. 13 years later, in 1780, she fell seriously ill. While surrounded by her remaining children and grandchildren, the great empress died at the age of 63 after 40 years on the throne. She was laid to rest next to her husband in a double sarcophagus. This largest and most elaborate tomb in the imperial crypt is topped by reclining life-sized figures of the couple gazing at each other and is flanked by mourning female figures carrying the crowns of their kingdoms. The cover alone weighs nearly 2 tons so that it does not cave in and pulverize the bones of the empress. It is supported by internal iron bracings. Now ruling solo, Emperor Ysef II was eager to implement reforms, but abolishing surfom and granting freedom of religion was too radical for his people, and he didn't have the charisma to pull it off. Eventually, his ministers simply ignored his orders. He died at 48 and was buried at his parents' feet. His epitap reads, "Here lies Yseph II, who failed in all he undertook. One of his many changes was to stop using expensive bronze for imperial sarcophagi. Instead, he introduced lighter and cheaper copper. More of Maria Teresa's children were initially buried in her vault, but they were later moved to newer vaults, so we'll meet them later. " Only four of her 16 children are buried elsewhere in the world. Maria Anna and Maria Elizabeth both became nuns and were laid to rest with their religious orders. Maria Amalia was buried in St. Vitis Cathedral in Prague. And Marie and Twinette, Queen of France, was executed by Guillotine during the French Revolution. Her head and body were thrown into an unmarked grave in the Maline Cemetery, but were later re-eried in the Royal Necropolis at the Basilica of Sandini. Next, we turn north into the Fron vault, which skips a generation to Maria Theresa's grandson, France II, and his four wives. The 25-year-old newly minted emperor was so incensed by the execution of his aunt Marian Twinette that he led Austria to war with revolutionary France. But his arch nemesis Napoleon Bonapart repeatedly beat him back. In 1806, in the face of defeat, France was forced to give up the imperial throne, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire. After 1,06 years of existence, France was downgraded to merely emperor of Austria. Through all of this political drama, there was plenty of personal tragedy. Fron's first bride, 22-year-old Elizabeth of Verinberg, died giving birth to a daughter, Louise Elizabeth, who lived only 16 months and is buried in the wall near her mother. Next, he wed his double first cousin, Maria Teresa, of the two Sicilles. They managed to have 12 children, but only seven survived. The Empress contracted tuberculosis while pregnant with her 12th child. Bloodletting did not improve her health and she died after delivering a premature daughter who followed her to the grave 3 days later and was buried with her. Wife number three was another first cousin, Maria Ludovvika. She was a devoted stepmother but had no children of her own. She died of tuberculosis at 28. Fron's fourth and final wife, Caroline Aosta of Bavaria, also had no children. Fron died of a sudden fever at 67. He was laid to rest in a grand but simpler neocclassical sarcophagus surrounded by the remains of three of his four wives. Daager Empress Caroline outlived him by 40 years. She did charity work and was close with younger members of the imperial family. She died the day after

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her 81st birthday and was laid to rest at her husband's northeast side. The Tuskenba. By 1840, the Capuchin monastery had fallen into disrepair. It was torn down and rebuilt, which was the perfect opportunity to expand the crypt below. Two new vaults were added, the Tuscan and the Ferdinand. Sarcophagi, which had previously been crowded into older vaults, were moved here, including four of Maria Teresa's children. Maria Christina, Mimi, was her mother's favorite. After the heartbreaking death of her special friend, Isabella, Christina married Albert of Socket. They had a happy union and collected art. They were sent by Emperor Ysef to rule the Netherlands, but they struggled to implement his reforms. Christina died of stomach disease at 56. Albert was buried beside her 24 years later. Leopold II was 17 when he inherited his father's Grand Duchy of Tuskanyany. This connection lent the Tuskin vault its name, and many placed within have connections to the Hapsburg's Italian territories. Liupold's wife, Maria Louisa of Spain, secured the succession by giving birth to 16 healthy children. When Ysef II died, Liupold II became emperor. He immediately repaired his brother's failed reforms before dying suddenly at 44. Though he only ruled for 2 years, he is highly regarded. His younger sister, Maria Cararolina, was named for her two sisters who died in infancy. When her older sister Maria Yospha died of smallpox, she became the fourth sister engaged to King Ferdinand of Sicily and Naples. The 15-year-old bride found her new husband very ugly, but they managed to have 18 children. They may not have all been his. He was also rather dull, and she was able to take control of the kingdom. She was horrified when her favorite sister Marian Twuinette was guillotined. Her hatred of the French intensified when Napoleon occupied Naples and forced her family to flee to Vienna while negotiating with her nephew to regain the throne. She was found lying dead on the floor of her office at 62, the result of a stroke. Ferdinand was 17 when he was engaged to Maria Beatatrix Dee, the only living child of the Duke of Morina. They had seven children and governed their corner of northern Italy until Napoleon chased them out. Ferdinand died at 52 and Beatatrix at 79. Their third son, Ferdinand Carl, joined the Austrian army against Napoleon. He died at 69. After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna recognized eldest son Francis IVth as Duke of Modina. His son Francis V was the last reigning Duke of Modina before the duche was incorporated into Italy in 1859. The ex-duke returned to Vienna where he died at 56 and joined his grandparents in the crypt. through his maternal grandfather Francis V inherited the Jacobite claim to the British throne and is considered by some to have been King Francis I of England, Scotland and Ireland. Check out that video. Also resting in the Tuscan vault are two of Liupold II's sons. Anton Victor, who was Grandmaster of the Tatonic Order of Knights, and Ludvig Ysef, who was in charge of the affairs of state during the reign of his disabled nephew, Ferdinand I. Leopold's grandson, Renar Ferdinand, who served as Minister President of Austria from 1861 to 65. Maria Karolina's grandson, Leopold II Grand Duke of Tuscanyany, was a liberal and authorized the Tuscan Constitution of 1848. But 11 years later, during the Italian War of Independence, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Ferdinand IV. He was not accepted by revolutionaries either. The family fled to Vienna as the new nation of Italy was born. Both father and son are buried in the Tuscan vault. In the next episode, we'll continue our winding way through the catacombs and visit the four relatively new chambers of the Imperial Crypt, meeting Emperor Ferdinand I, Maxmillian Emperor of Mexico, Maria Louise, Empress of France, Emperor France Ysef, Empress Zeta, and many other Hapsburgs.

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