Nationwide Rescue Effort : Vienna Launches Drive to Save Famed Cathedral

The spire of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna’s most famous landmark, is falling down and a fund-raising campaign similar to the one for the Statue of Liberty in the United States is under way to save it.

Master builder Kurt Stoegerer says industrial pollution is eating away at the chalky sandstone of the 450-foot, 15th-Century spire and other parts of the Roman Catholic cathedral.

Scaffolding has been put up on one side of the cathedral to protect pedestrians from pieces breaking off and falling from the spire.

Loose Fragments Removed

A three-pound piece of a gargoyle fell March 12 but caused no damage or injury.

“In a free fall of 24 meters (80 feet), this piece of stone reaches a weight equivalent to 750 kilograms (1,650 pounds),” Stoegerer told reporters. He said that prompted the immediate removal of several loose fragments from the spire.

Mayor Helmut Zilk, Archbishop Hans Hermann Groer of Vienna and two other bishops joined Stoegerer at a news conference to promote the nationwide fund-raising campaign.

Zilk, who was in New York when the Statue of Liberty was reopened last July, compared the U.S. nationwide effort to the task now facing Austrians.

Inspired by Statue of Liberty

“It was a national commitment to have this Statue of Liberty emerge in new splendor as a symbol of free America,” he said. “When the cathedral’s master builder went public with concern over the critical state of the edifice last fall, I decided to launch a similar effort.”

Older people here still remember when Viennese stood in the streets weeping after St. Stephen’s cathedral was burned and badly damaged in the waning days of World War II.

Stoegerer said pollution damage has become so bad that, at the present pace, there is no hope of restoring the cathedral fast enough to stop the facades from crumbling.

He estimated he needs $1.6 million a year for the next 20 years to make complete repairs and restorations.

Future Funding Set

The current annual budget of $800,000 for St. Stephen’s, which comes largely from the Roman Catholic Church, has been used to repair war-related damage.