Expert-led trips to the musical capitals of Europe

In all large cities, there are places to escape the hustle and bustle. In Vienna, one of the quietest sites is St. Marx Cemetery. As you enter the gates that are more than two centuries old, you’ll walk up a gently sloping, pebble-lined path surrounded by a beautiful canopy of Chestnut trees. After walking past rows and rows of grave stones, you will come across a large, open, grassy area: the Schachtgraber, or communal graves. Somewhere nearby is where Mozart is buried. On the left, you’ll see a sign directing you to his monument, an angel in mourning. There could be no better memorial for the wonderful composer who died too young.

Unfortunately no one knows exactly where Mozart is buried.  The circumstances surrounding this have fueled much speculation and storytelling.  Some believe that Mozart was so poor that his family could not afford a funeral. (They could.)  Others have said he had no friends and that no one cared.  Some have even thought that Constanze was not concerned enough to attend her late husband’s funeral. (She was ill from grieving.) Although we can never learn all the details of his burial, recent research has given us better information.

Following Mozart’s consecration at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, his remains were taken in a horse drawn wagon to St. Marx Cemetery.  It was not the custom of the day for anyone to accompany a body to the grave site. A few of his friends and students still attempted to travel with the corpse. They got as far as the city gates and had to stop because of the horrible weather and the speed of the wagon. Taking the body to the cemetery was simple and speedy transportation, not a solemn procession.

There were four classes of burials in Vienna at the time: first class, second class, third class, and pauper. The pauper’s interment was the same as third class, but required no fee.  Mozart had a third-class burial. The majority of burials listed on St. Stephen’s death register in late 1791 were third-class. Mozart’s was third class, as was suggested to Constanze in order to save money.

The modest burial may also have been keeping with Emperor Joseph II’s decree of 1784, which advocated simple burials in the interest of hygiene and economy. The decree also encouraged sack burials in communal graves and forbade memorial headstones. The policy was later withdrawn because of popular opposition.  Unfortunately, that was too late for Mozart. He was buried in an anonymous, mass grave.

Many music lovers like to place a flower in front of a beloved composer. This is Robert from a 2007 trip.

The burial grounds at the time, especially those outside the city limits, were very different from the attractive, landscaped cemeteries seen today. Interment was in rather bleak surroundings. Headstones were only permitted on the cemetery walls. There might have been an occasional bush or tree between rows of plots. Visitation was rare.

In the early 1844, Constanze returned to St. Marx to attempt to find where Mozart was buried. The gravedigger from 1791 was now long dead and the graves from that year had been dug up and reused. The bones that had surfaced were reburied. All that could be learned was that graves from that year were probably in the third or fourth row down from the memorial cross. In 1855, another inquiry yielded no additional information, but chose the location for the memorial.

Several monuments have been on this spot. The first, from 1855, was moved the Central Cemetery in 1891. Around 1900, a cemetery attendant built another memorial using parts from old gravestones. The memorial today, a mourning angel next to a broken pillar is a simple and moving reminder of Mozart’s premature death.

Read about other cemeteries of great musicians that are part of In Mozart’s Footsteps trips.

The movie Amadeus made Mozart a household name.  It did more to bring his music into everyday life than a thousand concerts and compact disks.  Peter Shaffer’s screenplay is an inspired piece of storytelling.  It tells of how Antonio Salieri plotted to defeat Mozart.  It is full of imagination and intrigue.  Unfortunately, it is not 100% true.  Let us separate fact from fiction regarding Mozart’s death.

The ceiling of Mozart's bedroom. The apartment is now part of "Mozarthaus Vienna", a three-story museum right behind St. Stephen's Cathedral.

For many years it was believed that Mozart was poisoned.  These rumors started as early as New Year’s Eve, 1791.  An obituary in the Berlin’s Musikalische Wochenblatt reported Mozart is—dead.  He was sickly when he returned home from Prague and remained ailing since then . . . Because his body swelled up after his death, it is even believed that he was poisoned.

At times Mozart even believed this.  When he was working on the Requiem he told his wife,  “I feel it very acutely.  It won’t be long now: I’ve surely been given poison!  I can’t let go of that thought.” Constanze never believed it.

Rauhensteingasse 8, where Mozart died, with St. Stephen's in the background.

The story strengthened when Salieri “confessed” that he poisoned Mozart. Salieri was delusional in the last years of his life.  But few of the people who heard his “confession” believed him.  Shortly before his death, Salieri put the record straight.  He said, although this is my last illness, I can assure you on my word of honor that there is no truth to that absurd rumor; you know that I am supposed to have poisoned Mozart.

The Russian dramatist Aleksander Pushkin must have believed the rumors.  In 1830, he wrote a short play in which Salieri does poison Mozart. It is aptly titled “Mozart and Salieri.”

If Mozart was not poisoned, then how did he die?  The cause of death was first thought to be  “feverish prickly heat.” Later it was thought to be a “liver condition with terminal uremia.”  Currently two theories exist.  A 1972 report suggests rheumatic fever.  A more recent study proposes that Mozart had the following sequence of illnesses in his final three weeks: streptococcal infection, Schönlein-Henoch Syndrome, renal failure, venesection(s), cerebral hemorrhage, terminal broncho-pneumonia.

A Fiaker (Viennese Horse-Drawn Carriage) in front of the Crucifix Chapel, site of Mozart's consecration.

Finally, let’s look at the Requiem.  Was the commission conceived by Salieri as a way to drive Mozart mad?  No.  Was it some malicious plot to make Mozart believe he was writing a requiem for himself?  No.  Was it commissioned by an anonymous messenger?  Yes, and that is where we need to begin.

Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach was a music lover and wealthy landowner from Lower Austria.  On February 14, 1791, his young wife died.  He came up an idea. He would commission Mozart to write a requiem mass that he would pass off as his own. It would be performed on the anniversary of his wife’s death.  Walsegg-Stuppach asked a neighbor to be an anonymous messenger and contact the composer. The neighbor was Turkish. The foreign accent may have confused Mozart.

Even after Mozart’s death, the Walsegg-Stuppach persisted with his deception. He copied the music (which had been completed by Mozart’s students) into his own handwriting.  On December 11, 1793, he conducted it. It was entitled, “Requiem, composto del Conte Walsegg”!

Sites to visit:

Rauensteingasse 8

The site where Mozart died on December 5, 1791. Now a modern (and rather ugly!) department store with a plaque dedicated to Mozart.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral

Mozart’s memorial was at the Crucifix Chapel, at the exit of the catacombs tour. There is a small memorial you can see from the outside of the building.

Domgasse 5

A three-floor museum called “Mozarthaus Vienna”. Mozart lived here 1784-1787.  It was his home that was depicted in “Amadeus” although he died in another home (Rauhensteingasse 9, above). This museum is one of my Top 5 Musical Sites in Vienna.

Michaelerkirche (St. Michael’s Church, across from the entrance to the Hofburg)

The parts of the Requiem that Mozart completed were performed here just five days after his death. You can see two plaques commemorating this to the right as you enter the church.

Prater

Vienna’s largest park. Mozart and his wife were walking here when he told her that he felt he had been poisoned.

Vienna has some of the most famous coffee houses in the world, but you can still go to Starbucks across from the Hofburg!