Mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II.

Discovered during a short visit to Graz: the monumental mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II, a Habsburg regent who, for once, was not buried with his family in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna.

Completed next to St. Catherine’s Church in 1636, the funerary structure in the Mannerist style, the transitional period from Renaissance to Baroque, was planned by Tintoretto’s pupil Giovanni Pietro de Pomis, the emperor’s court painter. The completion of the entire complex took place at the beginning of the 17th century by the still young Graz Baroque master builder Johann Fischer von Erlach.

The most important manneristic building in Austria and the most important representative building of the imperial court in Graz also stands for the age of the Counter-Reformation and the uncompromising attitude of Ferdinand II, which then led to the catastrophic 30 Years‘ War which was ended by his son, Ferdinand III., with the Peace of Westphalia.