Vienna - Capuchin Church Kapuzinerkirche

Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt designed the sarcophagi for Leopold I (d. 1704) and for Joseph I (d. 1711) in the Caroline Vault. B. F. Moll designed the sarcophagus of Charles VI (d.1740); a magnificent work of art it rests on four lions and is decorated with the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Hungary and Castile.

The Chapel in the Imperial Vault in Vienna has a memorial tablet to Emperor Charles I, the last Emperor of Austria. He died in exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira in 1922.

Ferdinand I, the Kindly, who died in 1875 and whose coffin stands on a pedestal, shares this chamber with 37 other members of the Habsburg family who are placed in niches in the walls.

Emperor Matthias, who died in 1619, and Empress Anna, who died in 1618, are considered to be the inaugurators of the family vault. Originally they were laid to rest in the monastery of St Dorothea, and their bodies were the first to be transferred to the Imperial Vault in 1633.

The last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis II, who died in 1835, lies in the Francis II Vault surrounded by the graves of his four consorts. The Classical copper coffin is the work of Peter Nobile.

In the Franz Joseph Vault, established in 1909, are buried Emperor Franz Joseph I (d. 1916), Crown Prince Rudolf, who committed suicide in the hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889, Empress Elisabeth ("Sissi") who was murdered in Geneva, and (in the vestibule) ex-Empress Zita von Habsburg (d. 1989).

On the left-hand side of the Kapuzinerkirche (church) in Vienna is the entrance to the Imperial Vault. Beneath the Church of the Capuchins is the Habsburg family vault where 138 members of the House lie buried. Since 1633 all the Austrian Emperors have been buried here, with just a few exceptions. (Ferdinand II was buried at Graz, Frederick III in St Stephen's Cathedral, and Charles I, the last Emperor, at Funchal in Madeira where he had gone as an exile.) The coffins contain only the embalmed bodies without the internal organs and the hearts. The nine vaults are arranged in chronological order which makes it easy to trace the evolution of taste. Unfortunately the bronze caskets dating from the 17th and 18th C. have been attacked by decay, which necessitates extremely expensive conservation work.

The Leopoldine Vault is called the Angel Vault for among the 16 bronze caskets are 12 in which children were laid to rest. Ferdinand III, who died in 1657, is also buried here. Balthasar Ferdinand Moll's casket for Elenore of Pfalz-Neuburg who died in 1720 made such a favorable impression on the Emperor that Moll, a Professor at the Academy for Fine Art, spent half the time of his remaining years working on sarcophagi.

Jean-Nicholas Jadot de Ville Issey designed the domed chamber dominated by Moll's masterly double sarcophagus in the Roccoco style for Maria Theresa, who died in 1780, and for Francis I, who died in 1765. The sarcophagus takes the form of a bed of state; at the head of the Imperial couple an angel of fame with trumpet and a crown of stars proclaims the triumph of faith. On the sides are numerous reliefs depicting scenes from Maria Theresa's life. It is also ornamented with four mourning figures and the crowns of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Jerusalem. Moll is also responsible for several Roccoco sarcophagi for the children of the Imperial couple, though not for the excessively simple copper coffin for Emperor Joseph II who died in 1790. In a niche in the Maria Theresa Vault is the coffin of the Countess Karoline Fuchs-Mollart who died in 1754. She was responsible for the upbringing of Maria Theresa and is the only person buried here who was not a member of the Imperial House.

The New Vault was created between 1960 and 1962 and contains the sarcophagi of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico who was executed in 1867 and Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife, who died in 1847. The body of their son, the Duke of Reichstadt, was transferred to Paris where it was buried in the Invalides.

The Tuscan Vault for members of the Tuscan collateral branch of the Habsburg House is at present being altered.