Freemasonry
Duration:
2 hours
With set square and
compass
The master builders of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna proudly displayed their guild insignia as an expression of their spiritual outlook.
Within a close-knit community, the craftsmanship of the medieval builders’ guilds was carefully preserved. They passed on their technical expertise, craftsmanship and sense of beauty from generation to generation.
In the same way that builders’ guilds of the past formed a transregional network, so too are Freemasons connected worldwide. United by shared ideals such as tolerance and humanity, the chain of brotherhood spans borders and social classes. In this country, a mayor and a chancellor were among the members, as was an emperor, alongside outstanding musicians, artists and intellectuals, writers, actors, social politicians, philosophers, doctors… The melody of the Austrian national anthem is also attributed to a fellow lodge member.
Once excommunicated by the Pope, almost universally banned by the imperial court, increasingly restricted in the 1930s and persecuted by the Nazis, this hidden society in Austria is now once again a vibrant community with around 3,600 members.
Let us set off together from St Stephen’s Cathedral on a search for traces of the past in Vienna’s city centre.
