Thoughts about death

Hello all.

I missed my dance class today, so instead we all took a fieldtrip back to the Stephansdom in order to get tix for the huge Mozart Requiem evening mass they'll be holding later this month. While there, we saw Sean wondering away toward the catacombs entrance.

So we followed.

Then jumped aboard a 5-person tour (figuratively speaking, there's no jumping really in the cathedral)

First, we descended into the "Old Catacombs." These have been restored, unlike the "New Catacombs" so it was a bit odd. Anyway... first we walked through all the bishop's coffins... then we saw the royalty's (Habsburgs) coffins, which were located directly below the alter. On the way out of their room, there's a hall filled with their organs. Now here's the tricky part. Apparently, no one could decide where the Habsburgs and their decedents should rest. Thus, many of their coffins were there BUT only the bronze containers holding their organs like the intestines, etc. Their hearts are in gold and are elsewhere ... as are something else.. can't remember what now. Anyway... doesn't seem to restful, eh?

Then we saw some more coffins... then...... then.... we descended into the very very cold and dark "New Catacombs."

The New Catacombs are super fascinating, grim, etc. They are home to the mass graves and "common people" graves.

Just to give you some sense of what we saw:

SO each room of the catacombs (by room i mean an actual room - like a living room or bedroom) was meant to hold 400 bodies in wooden coffins. What we saw though was not that. Things that caused changes:

1) There was a massive epidemic so they created hatch doors in the streets where people would just be dropped down into the mass graves. They did this because there were so many deaths and to avoid too much contact with the disease. One room we looked into held between 800-1200 skeletons. Their skulls were considerably smaller back then. The rest of the bones were too hard to tell size-wise, though obviously identifiable to body parts.

2) Bomb shelters. So during WWII, they needed to use the New Catacombs as a bomb shelter for civillians. So, they had to create additional, deeper mass graves and what they call "Bone Houses". We of course saw both. A Bone House is simply a room where the bones have been stacked very neatly to form walls.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in the shelter, hoping to be safe from the bombs while staring at all these skeletons.

3) Smell. After awhile, the 400 bodies per room theory became to smelly and no one could use the church for mass. They then began using an off-site system.

The thing i find very interesting here is that - well, it's old and there are histories every where you turn. In that way, there is death, defeat, torment, greaving, etc. everywhere. Each block has the sad Pieta. Each corner shows someone being killed and someone being victor. Death surrounds you. The concept of Mortality, maybe is a better way of saying it, is everywhere. I do wonder what a difference growing up in such an environment makes on the psyche.

There. those are my thoughts today on death.