Zentralfriedhof - The Central Cemetery of Vienna

           The Zentralfriedhof is the Central Cemetery of Vienna. It is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, largest by number of interred in Europe and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. It is situated on the outskirts of the city, in the district of Simmering (Simmeringer Hauptstraße 230–244, Vienna 1110, Austria). The giant cemetery spans to an area of about 2.4 square kilometres (590 acres). It accommodates over 330.000 graves. The cemetery was designed in 1870, according to the plans of the Frankfurt landscape architects Karl Jonas Mylius and Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli. The cemetery was opened on All Saints' Day in 1874.

                   Zentralfriedhof has a dead population of almost twice the present living residents of Vienna. In its early incarnations, it was so unpopular due to the distance from the city center that the authorities had to think of ways to make it more attractive – hence the development of the Ehrengräber or honorary graves as a kind of tourist attraction. Vienna is a city of music since time immemorial, and the municipality expressed gratitude to composers by granting them monumental tombs. The notable tombs found here are those of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Antonio Salieri, Johann Strauss II and Arnold Schoenberg. A cenotaph honours Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who is buried in nearby St. Marx Cemetery.

 

Schubert's tomb!

Brahms' tomb!

Beethoven's tomb

Mozart's memorial!

 The church in the centre of the cemetery is named Karl-Borromäus-Kirche (Charles Borromeo Church), but is also known as Dr. Karl-Lueger-Gedächtniskirche (Karl Lueger Memorial Church). This church in Art Nouveau style was built in 1908–1910 by Max Hegele.

                              We were lucky enough to strike poses near few of the massive tombs!

Interestingly the Zentralfriedhof is interdenominational with not only the Catholic and Protestant but also the Jewish, Muslim, Russian orthodox,  Greek Orthodox,  Romanian Orthodox,  Bulgarian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox Churches and even Buddhist cemeteries. Among the Viennese, a popular euphemism for a death is that the deceased person "has taken the 71" ("Er hat den 71er genommen"). Oopsies.... Apparenty "Tram 71" was the one most used by us during the trip!!!

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

          We were on a flying visit to Chennai. During the return journey we decided to drop in to some tourist spot. After spending a night in Mamallapuram we started southwards. Now we realised that Vedanthangal was a spot somewhere on our way. We decided to stop by the bird sanctuary and spend some quality time. We googled the route out and took the right turns and we were there in a couple of hours.

          As this was not pre-planned we did not have binoculars or other aids. Our cameras with full charge were waiting to click the best of migrating birds' sight!
          Finally we entered the site. We sure felt that something was unusual about the place!
Read on to find what happened.



          This was my first time in Vedanthangal and I was super excited about the trip. The fact that I can have a good deal of work with my camera was cheering me. (I was still in hangover that we shortened our stay in Mamallapuram).

We could only see empty benches, empty ponds, empty tree tops...... on a whole an empty bird sanctuary! Yes! it was off-season! We had no idea of that before. Since it was not in our plan to visit Vedanthangal, we didnot consult with any experts either.That was an ultimate BULB for us.

We were lucky enough to see this awesome creature though!! Now this specially abled birdie was named as "Tap-Mouthed Bill" by the author (Pipe-vaayan in the regional language-Tamil).

He managed to strike fantastic pose for me indeed!

Please pardon me if you came in here expecting tourist information regarding VBS :P