Turkish Liberation Monument
In the south wing is the Turkish Liberation Monument. It commemorates the end of the siege of Vienna in 1683 by the Ottoman Empire, which had been making steady inroads into eastern and central Europe for a century.
Vienna would have been a juicy prize for the Ottomans, both for the prestige and the control of trade routes. But two months into the siege, an allied army of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth broke the attack and turned back the Ottoman army, saving Vienna.
The monument was commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the battle, but it didn’t look like this: in 1945, a terrible fire destroyed large parts of the cathedral including this one. These three figures were restored: the Madonna and Child, Pope Innocent XI, and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Parts of some destroyed figures are still preserved in the catacombs area.
