The Jesuit Church and the Old University
Why is it significant?
You are standing in a small, perfectly enclosed square: on one side the tall facade of the Jesuit church with its two towers, on the other the elegant hall of the old university. It feels like a stage set, and that is appropriate, because the church behind you is a theatre of illusions.
Key Facts
| Place | The Jesuit Church and the Old University |
|---|---|
| Address | Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 1, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.20860, 16.37730 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna's Old Town Lanes: Stephansdom, Roman Stones and Medieval Legends |
| Generated | Generated |
You are standing in a small, perfectly enclosed square: on one side the tall facade of the Jesuit church with its two towers, on the other the elegant hall of the old university. It feels like a stage set, and that is appropriate, because the church behind you is a theatre of illusions.
The University of Vienna was founded in 1365 by Duke Rudolf IV, making it the oldest university in the German-speaking world still operating today. In the 1620s Emperor Ferdinand II handed control of its teaching to the Jesuits, the shock troops of the Counter-Reformation, who built their church and college right here. For over a century, this square was the heart of learning in Vienna.
Now go into the church. The interior was redesigned around 1703 to 1705 by Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit brother and the great master of painted illusion. Walk up the nave and look at the ceiling: a magnificent dome rises above you, with columns and windows. Keep walking, and watch it. At a certain point the dome begins to tilt and stretch, and you realise the ceiling is completely flat. The dome is only paint.
Back outside, look at the building opposite with the pale, palatial front. This is the Aula of the old university, built in the 1750s under Maria Theresa, today the seat of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In March 1808 an old and frail Joseph Haydn was carried into its great hall in an armchair to hear a performance of his oratorio The Creation; it was his last public appearance. Forty years later, in 1848, students from this university were at the front of the revolution.
The square bears the name of Ignaz Seipel, a priest and Austrian chancellor of the 1920s, which shows how tightly church and state were once woven together. Now walk along Sonnenfelsgasse and Bäckerstraße west, then turn south through the lanes towards Domgasse, where a famous composer lived happily for a while.