Secret exploration of the pristine imperial tomb of the Habsburgs

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

A very unusual message in the current stream of scientific news: there is not a word about everyone's favorite advanced research methods - not about DNA, not about isotopes, not even about X-ray fluorescence spectrometry with some simple radiocarbon analysis. Austrian experts spoke about a "secret" study based solely on photographs.

The result, according to scientists, is sensational. And in terms of the intensity of emotions - comparable to the moment of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun, for two reasons. First, the deceased studied was even of a higher rank - Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Secondly, of the 14 famous tombs of medieval kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, only this tomb in Vienna's Cathedral of St. Stephen remained intact - for 500 years no one dared to disturb the peace of the founder of the future Habsburg empire.

The photo below shows the actual imperial tomb in St. Stephen's Cathedral. Its history deserves a small separate story, since the available encyclopedias provide only the most general information: the author is Nikolai Gerhaert van Leyden, the material is red marble, the burial time is 1513. However, this information is not entirely accurate.

It is enough to check the dates: Nikolai Leydensky died in 1473, Frederick III in 1493, and the tomb appeared only in 1513. How so? And red marble is not marble, but a very complex red limestone from the famous Ardet deposit near Salzburg.

The explanation of these "inconsistencies" has been preserved in historical records. Frederick III (1415 - 1493) lived and ruled for a very long time, under different titles. In 1452 he became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - the last to be crowned in Rome and the first of the Habsburg family on this throne. It seems that Frederick himself did not expect to live a long life: he tried to order his own tomb back in 1463, thirty years before his death. He turned to one of the best sculptors of his time, Nikolai Gerhart Leiden. He was busy and was able to start work only in 1468, after the second insistent appeal of the emperor.

Gerhart developed the most complex design of the tomb (240 figures and 32 coats of arms are just those elements that can be counted) and, as luck would have it, chose a very laborious stone for it, the very red Ardetian "marble". In 1473 Gerhart died, having managed to finish only the tombstone with the image of the customer sleeping in eternal sleep.

The customer, apparently, was satisfied with his posthumous image, and work on the approved project was continued by the Viennese craftsmen Max Valmet (he owns the side reliefs) and Michel Tikhter, the court "undertaker". Tikhter designed the encircling balustrade and supervised the installation of the two-meter tomb in St. Stephen's Cathedral. By the way, from the height of human growth, the tombstone of the great Nikolai Gerhart cannot be discerned, but for those who are especially close, there are steps on the back of the balustrade.

And now a little about the deceased. Frederick III died in August 1493 in Linz, at the age of 78. The emperor was buried three times - or in three stages, it is difficult to find the correct expression. After his death, his heart and internal organs were immured in the parish church of Linz, where they remain to this day. Frederick's son, Maximilian I, did not have time to say goodbye to his father: he was delayed by the invasion of the Turks in Carinthia and Carinthia. Only in December 1493, the remains of the emperor were successfully transported to Vienna and placed in the "ducal crypt" of St. Stephen's Cathedral. A leg was attached to the body, amputated shortly before his death - Friedrich probably suffered from arteriosclerosis (not to be confused with atherosclerosis), and there is a reasonable assumption that it was extensive surgical intervention at the age of 78 that finished him.

20 years after his death, in November 1513, the remains of Frederick III (including the leg) were most solemnly buried for the third time - in a new tomb, the creation of which took 45 years. Since then, the monumental tomb has remained intact.

In November 2019, Austrian researchers suddenly announced that they have been studying the contents of the tomb for six years, and in December they will present the sensational results of their many years of work.

The reason why scientists and museum workers in 2013 decided to "infiltrate" the imperial tomb is not reported. We believe that everything is explained by an ineradicable scientific curiosity: as already mentioned, the tomb of Frederick III is the only burial place of a medieval monarch that has never been disturbed by wars, revolutions, robbers, or scientists. And in 2013, it was probably possible to get funding for a round date: the 500th anniversary of the completion of the tomb and the final resting place of the remains of the emperor. But as a result, the work dragged on for six years and was carried out, as it turned out, in secret from the general public.

The result of six years of research was … photographs. Numerous photographs of the interior of the tomb, taken through a tiny opening using a video endoscope.

“We were unable to open the tomb in 2013, and it is unlikely that such an opportunity will appear in the near future. This outstanding work of art has a gigantic weight (its individual parts weigh several tons) and a complex structure, therefore, any attempt to open the tomb could damage the sarcophagus and its contents,”the researchers explain in a press release on the website of the Vienna Museum of Art History.

By the way, in 2016, Format4plus conducted an external 3D scan of the tomb for the restoration workshop at St. Stephen's Cathedral, but it is unclear whether this was part of a large "secret" study or a separate project. The images obtained make it possible to fully appreciate the skill of medieval sculptors and carvers.

Until recently, scientists were not so categorical in their unwillingness to harm precious artifacts: by and large, they did not have much choice, because modern technologies - contactless, non-invasive, wireless, miniature - simply did not exist. The researchers recalled that in 1969 their predecessors had already tried to look into the tomb of the emperor. Then rumors spread that the monumental tomb was actually empty (like one of the two tombs of Frederick's son, Maximilian I), and specialists had to carry out the first "secret operation", as Franz Zechetner, archivist of St. Stephen's Cathedral, put it. In other words, they simply drilled a small hole in the wall of the sarcophagus and, with the help of a system of lamps and mirrors, received visual confirmation: there are human remains and some burial gifts inside. For obvious reasons, they could not take any photographs of the contents in 1969, besides, the participants in that "barbaric" operation were forbidden to tell outsiders about it. "In 1969, no further details were publicly released," said Franz Zechetner.

However, information about the work done was preserved in the memory of its participants and in the cathedral archives. Researchers in 2013, having learned about the existence of a secret hole, could not help but take advantage of it.

As a result of an almost medical operation, scientists managed to push a video endoscope inside, as well as “pinch off” and extract a small fragment of the sarcophagus lining and a tiny piece of tissue, but “basically all our knowledge about what is inside the tomb is based on the analysis of photographs taken in 2013 year, - said in a press release. Researchers admit that with this method it is impossible to get answers to all questions, but the new data is of extreme interest to historians.

The photo above is one of the most significant discoveries: the oldest surviving copy of the Mitrenkrone, the "miter crown". This type of crown was strongly associated with the house of the Habsburgs until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Art critics have already built a direct succession: the crown from the tomb of Frederick III can be considered the predecessor of the most famous example of the "miter crown" - the personal crown of Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg, created in 1602 and in 1804 that became the crown of the Austrian Empire.

A similar miter crown crowns the head of Frederick III on a tombstone (created, as we have already mentioned, no later than 1473), as well as on a portrait of 1468 and its better known copy of 1500 by Hans Burgkmayr.

The massive burial crown of Frederick III is apparently made of gilded silver. In addition to the crown, the researchers found other symbols of the imperial power next to the body: the scepter and the orb. Obviously, these regalia were made specifically for burial and were probably a copy of the sacred originals. This discovery came as a surprise to researchers, and this detail says a lot about Maximilian I, the famous son of Frederick.

“For the sake of his father, Maximilian went to huge expenses and arranged an extremely high-status funeral of the highest order. The most striking evidence can be considered the imperial regalia, made, in all likelihood, after the death of Frederick and intended exclusively for burial. They were supposed to indicate the status of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire even after death, and some details directly reproduce the funerary traditions of the ancient Roman emperors,”says Franz Kirchweger, curator of the Vienna Museum of Art History.

A direct reference to ancient traditions, researchers call, in particular, the commemorative coins found in the tomb, minted specifically for the solemn reburial of the remains in 1513. Such details, according to historians, speak of the growing influence of the ideas of the Renaissance in medieval Austria - more precisely, at the court of Maximilian I.

Another unique find is the giant gilded slabs listing the merits and achievements of Frederick and Maximilian, installed along the long inner sides of the sarcophagus. The photographs clearly show a fragment of the inscription, in which Maximilian once again reminds that the remains of his parent were buried here, in hoc precioso monomento, “in this precious monument”.

Why the text on the slabs is upside down is not specified in the press release, but in December the Vienna Museum of Art History plans to publish a full report with the results of the study, in which historians may try to find an explanation for such oddities as inverted inscriptions, a broken top slab and its the material is glazed ceramic tiles, which is extremely unusual for that era. In any case, scientists managed to extract a tiny fragment of a ceramic slab for laboratory research.

In addition to the imperial regalia and commemorative coins, other artifacts were found in the sarcophagus - a sword, a large crucifix and several types of fabric (including slings with which the sarcophagus was moved 500 years ago).

The textiles are perfectly preserved, and from photographs (and a small fragment that was recovered from the tomb), researchers identified at least three types of fabric. Two of them are clearly visible in the picture of the power (below). Probably both are silk velvet embroidered with gilded silver threads. Specialists in medieval textiles identified the place and time of their creation: Italy, early 16th century. It is reasonable to assume that the precious fabrics were also made specially for the solemn reburial of the remains in 1513.

Due to the peculiarities of the study (recall, miniature equipment in a large dark tomb), it is impossible to determine how much the burial corresponds to the sculptural image on the tombstone, although some details completely coincide. On the tombstone Frederick - with two legs, Nicholas Leydensky did not see him otherwise - lies in full imperial vestments, his head in a miter-crown rests on a pillow (coincides), in his right hand - a power, in his left - a long scepter (coincides). In the stone version, a ribbon with the abbreviation A. E. I. O. U. is wrapped around the scepter, and a monogram with the same letters is visible on the right - the press release did not report such a find in the tomb, but with a high degree of probability there is such an artifact somewhere near the remains.

Mysterious abbreviation A. E. I. O. U. - a personal "invention" of Frederick III, which later became the official motto of the Habsburg dynasty. Historians have not yet come to a consensus as to which specific words these letters correspond to, but the general direction has long been known: all decoding options somehow beat the very first, Austriae Est Imperare Orbi Universo ("Austria rules the world").

"Austria" in this case does not mean a country or territory, but "house / dynasty from Austria", that is, the actual Habsburg dynasty. Considering that Frederick first used this monogram in 1437, being only a Duke of Styria, he can be called a visionary: he would later become the founder of the royal Habsburg dynasty, which would rule almost all of Europe for centuries.

Not a bad legacy for a man who was nicknamed Erzschlafmütze during his lifetime - literally “arch-night-cap”, “arch-sleepyhead”. A kind of medieval Oblomov, and if we use modern jargon, then it’s a sloop with the prefix archi-.

Nowadays, the views of historians about the era of the reign of Frederick III really began to change in a positive direction. However, judging by the majestic tomb and the long-term desire to perpetuate the memory of Frederick, his son Maximilian understood his father's legacy much better than historians.

In Austria, only one tomb is comparable in scale and luxury to the tomb of Frederick III: it is the cenotaph, the “empty grave” of his son Maximilian I in Innsbruck. Maximilian had very peculiar ideas about his own death and burial, but everything ended not so exotic - his mortal remains rest under the steps of the altar of the chapel of St. George in the town of Wiener Neustadt.

According to the authors of a modern study on Frederick's tomb, the son buried his father with such luxury and reverence that he did not want for himself at all. A rare case when archaeological and historical research feeds psychologists: finds in the tomb can shed new light on the relationship between father and son, on the personality of Frederick and Maximilian, on the dominant manners and ideas at the court - all this, according to the authors of the study, can become one of the key areas of future work.

The emperor's amputated leg is not mentioned in the press release - have they found it, haven't they found it? We will wait for the publication of the full research report.