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Michaelerkirche
Vienna
It was built around 1220 and was one of only three parish churches in Vienna at that time. It has preserved a Romanesque core, which was supplemented with a bizarre array of Gothic, Baroque and neo-Everything that echoes pretty much every period in Austrian history predating the 20th century. You will be dazzled when you enter! Indoors, the church has information sheets that point out different elements of interest in all languages.
Most visitors come for the corpses: The Michaelerkirche is famous for its cellars and catacombs, where dead bodies did not rot properly, but were mummified due to warm air circulating the rooms. Several coffins are on display, some of them open with the corpses in their clothing still inside. Today there is air-conditioning as beetles have infested the bodies and high humidity has harmed them. A total of 4,000 wealthy but dead Viennese were buried here between the 14th century and late 18th century.
