Catacombs of St. Stephens

I wish this picture were better, but I wasn't supposed to take pictures anyway so I guess this blurry "entering the catacombs" picture is as good as it gets.

The bodies of the Hapsburgs are in one church, their hearts are in the St. Augustin "Marriage Church" but their intestines and other insides are here in St. Stephens. I know it's weird, but I think it's cool that their hearts are buried where they were all married.

In one room, there are jars filled with all of their remains. The guide said each is numbered and so if you really want to find out which jar is who you find it by number. "Maria Theresia is number 24."

I had never been to catacombs before. Such a neat experience, although I wish the St. Stephen's tour had been longer. It's so dark and musty below. There are actual several levels of catacombs! At one point we peered down a well-type opening down to the room below. The ladder got lost in the piles and piles of bones. Another room was completely reserved for Black Plague victims. I guess normally bodies of plague victims were thrown outside the city, but the bodies of the nobles got to be thrown in a hole to the St. Stephens catacombs. The strangest thing was seeing how they started stacking the bones when they ran out of room. One room had all walls covered in stacked bones and you couldn't even see to the top!

Creepy....but I guess part of the catacombs was used for bomb shelters! How horrible to be buried alive before you're really dead. Eerie!

When the group of us was standing in an empty room looking through a window at skeletons (yes, 4 full bodies lying over stacks of others!) in the next, he said, "Just think: This room you're standing in was a catacomb, too. It's just empty now. Those could be bones you're standing on!"