{"id":5860,"date":"2018-10-30T09:35:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T08:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=5860"},"modified":"2025-03-20T10:29:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:29:50","slug":"the-mozart-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/the-mozart-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mozart memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/zf_mozart_memorial_small.jpg\" alt=\"Mozart cemetery memorial thumbnail\" class=\"wp-image-5866\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/zf_mozart_memorial_small.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/zf_mozart_memorial_small-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Some of the world&#8217;s great composers share the same leafy grove in Vienna&#8217;s main cemetery (the Zentralfriedhof), but Mozart remains one notable omission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what do you do when you have a hole (literally and figuratively) in your collection of honorary graves? You put up a memorial, instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1859 stone memorial originally built to mark Mozart&#8217;s burial site in St. Marx cemetery<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Located next to Beethoven and Schubert&#8217;s graves<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Book a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiqets.com\/en\/concerts-opera-vienna-tickets-l206741\/?partner=visitingvienna&amp;tq_campaign=LG_Mozart\" rel=\"sponsored\">classical concert experience<\/a>* for Vienna<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/mozart\/\">Mozart location guide<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/zentralfriedhof\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"301\">The Zentralfriedhof<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The memorial<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/mozartmemorial.jpg\" alt=\"The Mozart Memorial at the Zentralfriedhof\" class=\"wp-image-45207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/mozartmemorial.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/mozartmemorial-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Looks like a gravestone. Is a gravestone. Not, though, a grave.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A bit of mystery surrounds <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/mozarts-grave\/\">Mozart&#8217;s grave<\/a>. But we do know two things: roughly where it is and that he&#8217;s no longer in it (they reused burial plots back in those days).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nobody knows for certain where the Salzburg-born composer&#8217;s bones ended up, but back in 1859 they at least erected a memorial at the best-guess location for the original burial site in Vienna&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/st-marx-cemetery\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3212\">St. Marx cemetery<\/a> (which you can visit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few years after that, the city built a large, new cemetery (the Zentralfriedhof) some way from the centre and began adding famous graves to give it a popularity boost.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/mozartmemorialinscription.jpg\" alt=\"Inscription on the side of the Mozart memorial in the Zentralfriedhof\" class=\"wp-image-59041\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/mozartmemorialinscription.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/mozartmemorialinscription-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(The inscription on the side of the memorial simply gives his name and the dates of his life)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They busily dug up many of Vienna&#8217;s favourite musical sons to create a cluster of composer graves that now includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/beethovens-grave\/\">Beethoven<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/brahms-grave\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"32076\">Brahms<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/johann-strauss-grave\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5683\">Johann Strauss II<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/schuberts-grave\/\">Schubert<\/a>, and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But not Mozart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The grave of perhaps the world&#8217;s greatest-ever composer remained undisturbed, given its lack of, well, a Mozart inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet it didn&#8217;t seem quite right: all those composers honoured at the Zentralfriedhof, but the most famous of all a notable absentee. Hence the obvious compromise solution&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"314\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mozartmemeorialoriginallocation.jpg\" alt=\"Standalone grave memorial from the 19th century\" class=\"wp-image-81456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mozartmemeorialoriginallocation.jpg 314w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mozartmemeorialoriginallocation-209x300.jpg 209w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(The memorial at its original site in the St. Marx cemetery, as photographed by Josef Mutterer sometime before 1891; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 42241; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1891, one hundred years after his death, Mozart&#8217;s graveside memorial moved from St. Marx to join the composer&#8217;s musical colleagues and successors at the Zentralfriedhof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The memorial features a grieving muse as well as Mozart&#8217;s portrait in relief. Even today, it&#8217;s not unusual to find flowers left there by well-wishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The memorial&#8217;s creator was&nbsp;Hanns Gasser, whose various sculptures can still be seen around the city today. Some have their own particular link to the great composer.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"274\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mozartmemorialzentralfriedhof1898.jpg\" alt=\"1898 photo of the Mozart memorial and other gravestones\" class=\"wp-image-69696\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mozartmemorialzentralfriedhof1898.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mozartmemorialzentralfriedhof1898-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Image from an 1898 postcard picturing the &#8220;honorary graves&#8221; of Beethoven, Gluck, Mozart and Schubert; produced by Carl (Karl) Ledermann jun.; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 17788\/577; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gasser helped decorate, for example, the main altar at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/waisenhauskirche\/\">Waisenhauskirche<\/a>, the very church where a 12-year-old Mozart once conducted a performance of the Mass in C minor (the &#8220;Waisenhausmesse&#8221;) he wrote for the church&#8217;s consecration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gasser also produced sculptures for fountains outside the 1869 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/opera\/staatsoper\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1071\">State Opera House<\/a>, which has hosted, for example, over a thousand performances of Mozart&#8217;s <em>The Marriage of Figaro<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to the Mozart memorial<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For directions to the cemetery, see the main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/zentralfriedhof\/\">Zentralfriedhof<\/a> article.  Once inside, follow the directions for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/beethovens-grave\/\">Beethoven&#8217;s grave<\/a>: Mozart&#8217;s memorial sits just in front of Beethoven&#8217;s last resting place (no coincidence, I think).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If travelling out to the Zentralfriedhof seems a bit of a chore, then Vienna also has a more central memorial to this giant of classical music. The famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/mozart-monument-burggarten\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5870\">Mozart monument<\/a> lives in the Burggarten park next to the Hofburg complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Zentralfriedhof, Simmeringer Hauptstra\u00dfe 234, 1110 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1u09oD8jdof-NPPOr-4e7ZWFBf-tLXzpW\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some of the world&#8217;s great composers share the same leafy grove in Vienna&#8217;s main cemetery (the Zentralfriedhof), but Mozart remains one notable omission. So what do you do when you have a hole (literally and figuratively) in your collection of honorary graves? You put up a memorial, instead. The memorial (Looks like a gravestone. Is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-footsteps","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5860"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81457,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions\/81457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}