Augustinian Church, Vienna

Augustinian Church, Vienna tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free with a donation box. Nothing inside is ticketed, which is unusual for a church of this importance in Vienna. The draw is the music: the Sunday high mass at eleven is sung with orchestra and choir, performing a Haydn, Mozart or Schubert mass setting in the setting it was written for, and there is no charge beyond the collection. Concerts in the evening are ticketed by promoters. Guided tours of the Hofburg pass the church and cost several times nothing.

The church is on Josefsplatz, attached to the imperial palace, two minutes from the Albertina and the state opera, so there is no transport to arrange. The crypt of hearts is shown only by prior arrangement with the parish, which is worth knowing before turning up expecting to see it. The church shop sells the schedule of orchestral masses for the season, which is the only reliable way to plan around them.

Visiting Augustinian Church, Vienna: what to see

Duke Frederick the Handsome founded the church in 1327 and it became the parish church of the imperial court in 1634, which is why so much Habsburg family history happened here. Maria Theresa married Francis of Lorraine in this nave in 1736; Marie Louise was married by proxy to Napoleon here in 1810; Franz Joseph married Elisabeth of Bavaria here in 1854. The Gothic interior, 85 metres long, was stripped of its baroque decoration in the 1780s and returned to bare ribbed vaults, which gives it an austerity unusual in Vienna.

Canova's tomb of Archduchess Maria Christina, a white marble pyramid with mourners filing into a dark doorway, stands in the nave and is the most striking monument in the city. In the Herzgruft, a small vault behind the Loreto chapel, fifty-four silver urns hold Habsburg hearts. The Loreto chapel behind the high altar holds a copy of the Holy House of Loreto, and the organ above the west end is used for the Sunday settings.

Augustinian Church, Vienna opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily outside services, generally from morning to early evening. The Sunday orchestral mass is the reason to plan a visit; arrive twenty minutes early for a seat and expect to stay an hour and a half. The church is not heated and is cold from November to March. Vienna's opera and concert season runs from September to June, and this church is part of it in a way most visitors never discover. Dress modestly.

Photography without flash is allowed outside services. Allow twenty minutes, or ninety with the mass. The Albertina, the Spanish Riding School and the national library's baroque hall are all within a hundred metres. Josefsplatz outside is one of the quietest squares in the inner city and is where the fiacres wait. Advent and Easter bring additional sung masses, and the church is used for state funerals and imperial commemorations.