It sits in one of the many plazas. It is dark and imposing. It is Vienna's main cathedral. The present structure was begun in the 13th century although the site has been a religious one since the 10th century. The hundreds of years of the city's history is evident in the foundations of buildings dating to Roman era occupation left exposed in one of the ubiquitous plazas. The cathedral, like many priceless treasures in Europe, was heavily damaged during WW2. The restoration is seamless. I find myself happy that they could recreate the beauty and detail, although a little dark and Gothic for my taste, apparently the times in which it was built was not particularly happy and carefree, I feel sorrow that man has rarely found a way to overcome differences that does not include violence, destruction and ruin.
We stepped back into the plaza and began our search for the Leopold Museum. It took several tries, showing the location of the museum on the map to locals, until we found our way to the museum quarter. Large, beautiful twin museum buildings face each other over an expanse of lawn and sidewalks. Across a street runs a long building which also housing museums. We later found out it had originally been the royal stables. Walking through an arch you step into a plaza, another one. 2 modern museum buildings stand on either side, one of them the cube of The Leopold.
We fortified ourselves first with lunch at an outdoor restaurant on the plaza where a bee showed an immense interest in my husband's wiener schnitzel. Eventually we conceded defeat and allowed it to feast on a small portion of it. Sating itself it flew off leaving us to finish our meal in peace. We purchased 2 croissants for the tuna fish sandwich picnic we had planned for the next day and climbed the steps to the entrance to the Leopold.
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