There were no German classes this morning, and for our Arts and Culture class, we visited the Wien history museum and the Schönbrunn in the afternoon. I finally got a good night sleep, so I very much enjoyed my day. Video chatting with David was also quite nice; he woke up at 4:30 to see me. =D

The History of Wien Museum is quite close to the IKI school. Karlskirche, a rococo baroque church, next to the museum, is visible from my the school's windows. It was completed in the early half of the 18th century. It was finally pretty enough to take pictures.The copper covered dome would have been stunning to behold, as it caught the light. As it is the, large shallow pool in front does the trick.

We had a tour guide of the museum, which was okay, but I wanted way more time on each floor. The prehistoric, Roman, and medieval periods were my favorite parts! They must have an enthusiastic modeler because the models of the city in varying time periods were superb and extensively detailed.

An old Corinthian capitol!

 Medieval armor, helmets, and shields! Insert Games of Thrones comment.

The medieval model. The church in the middle is the Gothic cathedral from an earlier post, St. Stephen's Cathedral.

The above sculptures adorned St. Stephen's cathedral, and were elongated so that when looking up the proportions would seem normal. The S-curve of their bodies was a medieval sculptural "norm." The first two were the parents of the king that initiated the building of the cathedral, the following two, the king and queen during the time, and I have no idea who the last one is.

 I am actually not sure where these stained glass pieces are from since the card was hard to decipher. I did pick up that art historians are still uncertain as to how they were created. Cool, right? They were beautiful, really. My mother adores stained class, something I learned to love as well; above all fine crafts, it's what I want to learn more than anything.

 A stunning portrait of Maria Theresa, mother of Marie Antoinette. She re-modeled the summer residence we visited in the afternoon which you can see below. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Schönbrunn, which I was bummed about. The grounds are spectacular, and there's even a ZOO! I plan on visiting on a not so good day since animals always cheer me up. The Philharmonic takes place behind the Schönbrunn. There was an opportunity to attend, but I had homework. I'm thinking I maybe should have gone.

Back to the museum...like many other Eastern European countries, the ultimate and most ancient enemy is the Ottoman Turks. Having suffered a previous invasion of Vienna in the 1520s, the following pictures are of items from the Siege of Vienna in 1693.

There were 20,000 troops stationed around Vienna, pictured in the painting below on the hills surrounding Vienna.

Below is a portrait of the Sultan who maneuvered the invasion, Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. When the Ottomans left Vienna, they also left 5 lbs. bags of coffee behind. Franz Georg Kolschityky, a trader and interpreter who had done business with the Turks before, seized the bags and opened the first Viennese coffee house. He added milk to the coffee though, essentially inventing the cappuccino. Even if you know very little about Vienna, their coffee houses are famous for being hubs of culture, discussion, art, etc. They hold the same prestige today.
 

This is actually a sign from above a shop during this time period. Such details in the metal!

Another model, the detail was enchanting.

The church is St. Stephan's cathedral.

The dome to the left of center is the Baroque church I had posted pictures about earlier. It's cited as one of the earliest Christian churches.

A more modern model, this below picture shows the Ringstraße which we are taking a tour of tomorrow, so I'll have more pictures. We're also studying the buildings and architects in my Arts and Culture class. I'll talk more about the buildings and what they represent in my next post. It's interesting how it reflects the changing period it was built in.

Goodnight all!