Karlskirche

Why go

The Karlskirche (Wiener Karlskirche) is a Roman Catholic church at Karlsplatz 10 in Vienna's 4th district. The church's history page says Emperor Charles VI vowed it to his name saint, the plague saint Charles Borromeo, when plague struck Vienna in 1713; the foundation stone was laid in 1716, Josef Emmanuel Fischer von Erlach took over the building after the death of his father Johann Bernhard, and the church was consecrated on 28 October 1737. The church says the Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (Kreuzherren) has had its spiritual care since an imperial decision of 1733, and that the rectorate office is in the order's house directly behind the church. Its visitor page (in German) says the visit ticket includes the church model, the panorama terrace above the entrance portal reached through the organ loft, the treasury and the organ loft, with an audio guide, that groups need no advance registration, and that the restored imperial oratory can be seen after written advance arrangement. The church describes itself as a place of worship as well as a work of art; this record is the church, not Karlsplatz.