Karlskirche
During a plague epidemic the emperor Charles VI vowed to build a church to St Charles Borromeo. Fischer von Erlach designed a domed church flanked by two columns modelled on Trajan’s Column. The church unites ancient Rome, the Renaissance and the Baroque in a single façade.
During the plague in Vienna in 1713, Charles VI vowed to build a church to Charles Borromeo, a saint associated with fighting the plague. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach won the competition, and work began in 1716. When he died in 1723 his son Joseph Emanuel completed the work, and the church was consecrated in 1737. Fischer von Erlach had studied in Rome and wrote a book on the history of architecture in which he included buildings from antiquity, Egypt, China and the Islamic world.
The façade is wide and made up of several parts. In the middle stands a portico with six columns and a pediment, like an ancient temple. On either side stands a free-standing column with a spiralling relief band depicting the saint’s life. They recall Trajan’s Column in Rome, but also the two pillars that stood in front of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. At the outer ends are two low tower pavilions. Behind the façade rises a tall oval dome on a drum. The interior is oval, and the dome was painted by Johann Michael Rottmayr.
The church shows the Baroque love of combining symbols. The columns can be read both as imperial power and as the Pillars of Hercules, the emperor’s emblem. The façade became a model for later churches in Central Europe. When the dome frescoes were restored in the 2000s, a lift was built up to the dome, which visitors could ride in for a time. The square in front, Karlsplatz, has also been shaped since the 19th century by Otto Wagner’s city railway stations.