Tag Archives: Charlemagne

Peterskirche, the Baroque Church of St. Peter in Vienna

Just after the turn of the 18th century, however, another church was built here: the present Peterskirche. It was begun in 1701 and consecrated in 1733. It was the first domed structure in Vienna, and its towers are said to have been inspired by the tents of the Turks during the siege just a few years earlier.

Visiting Rome’s Santa Maria in Trastevere

We didn’t mean to visit Santa Maria, or Our Lady in Trastevere, when we did; we were just looking for good food in the Trastevere (“across the Tiber”) neighborhood. Eventually we would have found our way to it, but hungry as we were when we walked by, I simply couldn’t help myself. I had to go in.

Reconsidering Mehmet

Death, being a sneaky bastard, does not always cooperate with princes, kings, and emperors, and in the age when medicine included things like medical astrology and bloodletting, and eschewed things like basic hygiene, this was especially true. The reductionist could make a surprisingly cogent argument for accidents of birth and death being responsible for empires.