Imperial Crypt (Capuchin Crypt)

How to get there: a 6-minute walk from Hotel Appartements Riemergasse 

Vienna and Death - this morbid cliché which surrounds death is as much a part of this city as its wine taverns and sausage stands.

At the forefront the Imperial Crypt: Empress Anna, the wife of Emperor Matthias, established a burial site for herself and her husband in her last will and testament which was put to paper in 1618. It was to be built within the city walls. On the Mehlmarkt or Mehlgrube, today's Neuer Markt, the perfect place was found for the location of the crypt. Above it was built a monastery for the Capuchin Order.  By 1633, the church and crypt were close enough to completion that Anna and her spouse could be interred in the crypt.

Even though the crypt was originally only intended for Empress Anna and Emperor Matthias, later monarchs decided to expand the crypt even further, so that it might serve as the imperial crypt.

In this largest and most important crypt of its kind we today find 146 bodies. The dead who found their last resting place here lie in wooden coffins, covered in velvet and ornamented with metal fittings. These wooden coffins were then placed inside magnificent sarcophagi after the funeral ceremony.