Although a visit to the the Imperial burial vaults beneath the Kapuzinerkirche might not appear on you list of 'Jolly Things to do in Vienna', may I be amongst the first to beg you to reconsider.
Kapuzinergruft is next to Kapuzinerkirche at the end of Neuer Markt and it does not look very special from outside, although 138 of the austrian emperors are buried there with their families, including Maria Theresia, Kaiser Franz Joseph and his wife Sisi.
Directions: Kapuzinergruft is between Albertina and Stephansdom on Neuer Markt.
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In 1982, the Austrian government granted Zita the right to re-enter Austria, although she had never renounced the Habsburg claim to the throne.
She was buried in Vienna's Imperial Crypt (die Kapuzinergruft) in the city centre, which had served for centuries as the Habsburg family's burial place.
Zita received what was in effect a state funeral, attended by leading politicians, state officials and international representatives, including a representative of Pope John Paul II.
The Imperial Crypt (in German: Kaisergruft but usually called the Kapuzinergruft, "Capuchins' Crypt") lies below the Capuchins' church (the Church of St. Mary of the Angels) and monastery founded in 1617 and dedicated in 1632.
Layers of the horizontal surfaces had peeled, base plates had broken through, decorative fixtures had been broken or stolen by visitors, the cast metal absorbed too much humidity and puffed up, and heavy covers had caused some sidewalls to bend or cave.
The first major restoration effort was undertaken in 1852, but further work was needed by 1956 when the Gesellschaft zur Rettung der Kapuzinergruft (Association for Saving the CapuchinCrypt) came into being to inform the public of the problem, raise funds, and preserve and restore the tombs.
Emperor Franz Joseph was laid to rest in the Kapuzinergruft next to Empress Sisi, Crown Prince Rudolf and Emperor Maximilian I, who had been killed in Mexico.
And the "remaining remains" were buried in the Kapuzinergruft.
As recently as the last century, guided tours through the Catacombs of St. Stephen's Cathedral were seen as an especially morbid entertainment: it was there that the bones of thousands of Viennese of many different eras were collected.
