St. Stephen's Cathedral

How to get there: 5 minutes on foot from Hotel Appartements Riemergasse,

The first Romanesque church was consecrated here in 1147. In the 13th century, the church was reconceived from the ground up, with the ceremonial re-consecration of late-Romanesque St. Stephen's occurring in 1263.   The west wall, the oldest part of St. Stephen's, with its venerable Romanesque towers, has remained essentially unchanged through the years. The church, however, grew and underwent continual changes.

At the beginning of the 14th century, new construction in Gothic style began with the building of a wide, open, three-aisle nave. The cathedral continued to be expanded and remodeled until the mid 15th century.
During the Baroque era, St. Stephen's once again underwent some changes. In the last days of the Second World War, April 11 and 13, 1945, the cathedral came under heavy bombardment. It was lost. But the Viennese were committed to the church they affectionately referred to as their "Steffl". Immediately after the war, it was rebuilt stone by stone.

The St. Stephen's of today is 107.2 metres long and 34.2 metres wide. The cathedral has 4 towers, the tallest of which is the south tower at a height of 136.44 metres. The north tower was originally intended to be the same height as the south tower, but was never completed. The second-largest bell in all of Europe now hangs in the north tower, known as  "die Pummerin" and annually sounding at midnight on New Year's Eve, December 31st.

During the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy, no building was permitted to be taller than St. Stephen's - which explains why the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Linz was built 2 metres lower!