In the former Court Church – today highly considered because of its church music – the 1854 wedding of Emperor Franz Joseph and his Sisi took place. Today, one regularly hears the great masses by Mozart, Haydn and Schubert at High Mass at the Church of the Augustinian Friars.

In the court church St. Augustin, on the west side of the Imperial Palace, numerous weddings of the imperial family took place: Here, Empress Maria Theresia married Franz Stefan von Lothringen in 1736, Emperor Franz Joseph I married “Sisi” in 1854, Crown Prince Rudolf married Princess Stephanie in 1881 and even the French Emperor Napoleon married the Austrian Princess Marie Louise here in 1810.

Erected between 1330 and 1339, the church served the imperial family as departure point for pilgrimages and jubilee processions as well as for funeral ceremonies. Especially noteworthy is the tomb of Archduchess Maria Christine by Antonio Canova, a masterwork of classicistic architecture built between 1798 and 1805 made from white Carrara marble, which mirrors the great mourning of the widower.

The Gothic St. George’s Chapel (built in 1337; access through the Loreto Chapel) was where the Knights of the Order of George once met. In the Loreto Chapel, one finds the so-called Herzgruft (heart burial vault), where 54 hearts of Habsburgs are kept in silver urns.

Two organs have added to the prestige of the church in the music world. Not only did Franz Schubert conducted his Mass in F here, but Anton Bruckner’s Mass in F minor also had its world premiere here.

High Mass: Sunday and Holidays 11:00 am (except July – August)

Burial Vault of the Hearts of the Habsburgs: Visits by appointment only and Sundays after High Mass (around 12:30 pm)