Saying that the heart of the Habsburgs is in Vienna may sound like a poetic expression to embellish a historical fact, but it can be taken literally if one visits the Church of the Augustinians, part of the Hofburg Imperial Palace. There, in a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, the Loretokapelle, lies the Herzgruft or Heart Crypt, aptly named as it is a funerary chamber that houses the hearts of about fifty members of the powerful family.
The House of Habsburg, also known as Haus Österreich (House of Austria, as it was often called by the Spanish), was one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe. This is evidenced by the fact that they held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire for over three centuries, from 1438 to 1740 (although they later had sporadic emperors), as well as ruling over countries such as Hungary, Croatia, England, Bohemia, and Portugal. Spain was the jewel of that crown, and in the second half of the 19th century, they added the ephemeral Second Mexican Empire, represented by Maximilian I, to the list.
The Habsburgs were originally from the Swiss canton of Aargau, with the family founded by Count Radbot, a noble born in 985, son of Count Lanzelin of Altenburg and Luitgard of Thurgau (who brought Swiss estates into the marriage, which their son inherited).

Radbot, also the grandson of Guntram the Rich (a powerful German lord who lost many of his properties in an undefined conflict with Emperor Otto I), built the Habichtsburg (Hawk’s Castle) in Aargau, now known as the Habsburg Castle, as the original family seat. His grandson, Otto II, was the first to bear the family name in the 12th century.
The connection between this lineage and the Holy Roman Empire began in 1273 when Rudolf I of Habsburg was named Rex romanorum (King of the Romans, a title used for future emperors elected by prince-electors but not yet crowned by the Pope). He confronted Ottokar II of Bohemia, a descendant of another prominent lineage, the Hohenstaufens.
As a result of this conflict, Rudolf significantly expanded his territories and managed to declare himself emperor, albeit briefly due to opposition from many princes. Hence, it is considered that the great imperial period of the Habsburgs began in 1438 with Albert II.

The last ruler of the Holy Roman Empire was Francis II, who witnessed its dissolution in 1806 by Napoleon Bonaparte, who had just established his own empire and tolerated no rival. By that time, however, the German emperors had long lost their power, particularly since 1648, when the Peace of Westphalia effectively turned their domains into a de facto confederation. A decade later, following his failure to be elected emperor, the French king Louis XIV created the League of the Rhine to isolate the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs from Spain.
During this period, many generations of Habsburgs followed—after the death of Empress Maria Theresa, tied to the House of Lorraine—including numerous margraves (princes), dukes, archdukes, emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, and emperors of Austria.
As mentioned at the beginning, the hearts of fifty-four of them rest in the crypt of the Loretokapelle, in the Church of the Augustinians, located in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace and open to guided tours. This church, known as Augustinerkirche, features a nave 85 meters long and 20 meters wide.

It was built for the Order of Saint Augustine in 1327 by Frederick the Handsome, Duke of Austria and Styria and also King of the Romans, who entrusted the work to architect Dietrich Landtner. The site could not be consecrated until 1249, and in that time, despite having a monastery and cloister—today still cared for by six friars—it became absorbed into the palace complex.
For this reason, in 1634, it was decided to convert it into the parish of the imperial family, hosting numerous weddings (including that of Archduchess Maria Luisa of Austria with Napoleon), despite not being particularly striking externally. In 1784, it underwent a restoration that returned it to its Gothic style.
A result of this restoration was the construction of the Loretokapelle, the chapel in honor of Saint Mary of Loreto, modeled after the one in Prague. It was built in the southern part, featuring exposed stone walls. It was a project initiated by Empress Eleonora Gonzaga, a Mantuan wife of Ferdinand II, who financed its construction by donating many of her jewels and, upon her death, eight thousand florins for its maintenance. Behind it lies the aforementioned Herzgruft or Heart Crypt, a partial Habsburg mausoleum, as we will see.

As a curiosity, it is worth mentioning that the chapel is not only a funerary place, as it was where, in 1631, the future Emperor Ferdinand III married the Spanish Infanta María Ana, daughter of King Philip III. However, this and the marriage of his cousin Cecilia Renata to Władysław IV Vasa of Poland are the only weddings it has hosted. It was also where Habsburg women prayed for their descendants after childbirth. Maria Theresa of Austria even placed the weight of her youngest son Maximilian Francis in gold on the altar there.
It wasn’t until Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans and also ruler of Bohemia, Croatia, and Hungary, expressed the desire that upon his death his heart be taken to the crypt and placed inside a chalice at the feet of the figure of the Virgin, to whom he was very devoted. His death, caused by smallpox, occurred on September 9, 1654, and the following day his wishes were fulfilled: after being displayed to the public alongside his body, his heart became the first cardiac organ deposited in the Herzgruft, named as such for this reason, starting a whole tradition.
Until then, hearts were buried with their owners, but Ferdinand’s body was dissected and placed in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which facilitated the process. A simple funeral ceremony was held, and by nine in the evening, the heart was in the crypt, paving the way for subsequent Habsburgs. In fact, in 1754, a law was enacted regarding this new custom, stipulating the distribution of the body for burial in different locations so that three Viennese churches would each have a part of a reigning lord’s body.

Thus, the bodies were taken to the Kaisergruft (Imperial or Capuchin Crypt) in the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, where 143 people rest—including 12 emperors and 18 empresses—while the viscera, wrapped in cloth and stored in copper containers filled with formaldehyde, were placed in the Herzogsgruft (Ducal Crypt) of the Stephansdom, as the beautiful medieval St. Stephen’s Cathedral is popularly known, where 15 coffins are preserved.
Until 1784, the Heart Crypt consisted of a small marble-lined chamber in the ground behind the altar, with a niche in the wall housing the statue of the Virgin. The space for the urns was less than half a meter deep and was closed with an iron plate topped by another of marble. Consequently, until the 1784 refurbishment of the chapel, only 21 hearts had been buried there.
That year, the chief architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg demolished the site and rebuilt it where Emperor Joseph II instructed: the lower part of St. George’s Chapel, which had served as the monastery’s chapter house in the Middle Ages. The urns were moved there, sealed in a box, until the current crypt was built in 1802 with a small semicircular room, separated from the main crypt by an iron door and designed to house the urns and those yet to come. There are 54 urns with hearts in total, spanning a wide chronological range from 1618 to 1878, including nine belonging to emperors.

The urns are heart-shaped and all made of silver except for that of Emperor Matthias, which is gold. The Duke of Reichstadt, Napoleon’s son nicknamed the Eaglet, whose body is in the Invalides in Paris, transferred by Hitler’s order, also has a small ornamental difference, as his urn is adorned with tricolor ribbons alluding to the French flag. The oldest heart, from 1618 though added later, belongs to Anne of Austria-Gonzaga, wife of the aforementioned Matthias; the most recent belongs to Archduke Franz Karl, father of the famous emperors Franz Joseph I and Maximilian I of Mexico.
Also present are, among others, the founder of the Herzgruft, the aforementioned Ferdinand IV; Emperor Charles VI, a claimant to the Spanish throne upon the death of King Charles II, who lost the War of Succession to the future Philip V of Bourbon; and Empress Maria Theresa I, the first and only woman to hold power in her own right, who was also the last Habsburg ruler. Upon marrying Francis Stephen of Lorraine, she incorporated his surname into hers, leading the dynasty to be renamed accordingly.
In this context, it is worth noting that Maria Christina of Habsburg-Lorraine, Maria Theresa’s favorite daughter, not only has her heart in the Augustinian Church but was also honored by her husband, Duke Albert of Saxony-Teschen, with a monumental cenotaph in the main nave. This masterpiece, sculpted between 1798 and 1805 by the Italian neoclassical master Antonio Canova, is a sight to behold, especially enhanced by the sacred music concerts hosted there. After all, it was here that Schubert and Bruckner premiered their respective Masses in F Major and Minor.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on January 15, 2025: Herzgruft, la cripta de Viena donde se conservan los corazones de los Habsburgo
SOURCES
Martyn Rady, Los Habsburgo. Soberanos del mundo
Benjamin Curtis, The Habsburgs. The history of a Dynasty
Augustine Kirche, Die Herzgruft in der Loretokapelle
Lina Schnorr, Imperial Vienna 2011
Wikipedia, Herzgruft
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