Karlskirche

A visit to the Karlskirche museum really helped me to somewhat define the look of the Baroque style. The outside of the church was very similar to that of the Belvedere, also in Baroque, and the inside was very ornate. There were amazing murals of angels, saints, and priests covering the entire ceiling, which was very massive. You could even take the stairs up closer to the ceiling to see the amazing frescoes more closely, since they were restoring many of them. Up close you could not tell the characteristic of “tricking the eye” from the Baroque; however, when you were standing on the ground floor of the church looking up, you could see the illusions of angels following you and I could not really get a feel of how high the ceiling was or when structure ended and painting began. The inside of the church was adorned in a rich, deep red marble and gilded altars all over. It seems that a lot of the Baroque style is used to show off the grandness and the power of the Habsburg and the superiority of Catholicism, especially during the Reformation period. For instance, in the Belvedere the guesthouse, upper Belvedere, is an amazing structure set on top a hill outside the center of Vienna with gorgeous views of the city. The entrance to the guesthouse is a long pathway fit with an artificial pond, which mirrors the image of the Belvedere, this follows the Baroque styles tending towards the use of mirrors and reflections to create illusions.
It seems that this over the top “peacocking” could be a way to legitimize the Habsburg empire. Unlike the French to the west and the Ottomans to the east, the Habsburg did not engage themselves in great battles or wars in order to gain land and subjects; however, they created marriage alliances overseen by Maximilian I (Beller 41). The marriage between his son, Philip, and Juana of Castile helped to ensure the Habsburg line in Spain, which probably also led to the Habsburg allegiance to Catholicism.
After the rise of Protestantism and the conversion of many great European powers to Protestantism, the Habsburg still remained Catholic, while countries to the north and immediately west were becoming Protestant. This led to a power struggle between the Protestants and Catholics, resulting in the 30 Years war, which lasted from 1618 until 1648. This was initially a war between the Catholic Habsburgs and the Protestant Swedes; however, as the war progressed it turned from a religious war to a strategic war. The French were worried of the rising powers of the Habsburgs and in an effort to preserve the balance of powers in Europe, they, even though Catholic, joined the side of the Protestant Swedes to fight against the Habsburgs. In the end, the Catholics prevailed, after the death on battlefield of the Swedish King, Gustavos Adolphus.