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Masked by Picassi's bland facade, the Augustinerkirche , to the south of Josefsplatz, is one of the oldest parts of the Hofburg, dating back as far as the 1330s. Inside, the church has taken a beating over the years, though it retains its lofty Gothic vaulting. The chief attraction is Antonio Canova's Neoclassical Christinendenkmal , in the right-hand aisle, a lavish memorial to Maria Christina, favourite daughter of Maria Theresia, erected in 1805 by her husband, Albrecht, Duke of Saxony-Tetschen. A motley procession of marble mourners heads up the steps for the open door of the pyramidal tomb, while a winged spirit and a sad lion embrace on the other side, and another genius holds aloft the duchess's medallion. They'd be disappointed if they ever got inside, for she's actually buried in the Kaisergruft. Canova's pupils were so taken with the mausoleum that they adapted the design for Canova's own mausoleum in Venice's Frari. Several more monumental tombs can be found in the Georgskapelle , a self-contained, two-aisled chapel, built in the fourteenth century to the right of the chancel, and only infrequently open. In the centre of the chapel lies the empty marble tomb of the Emperor Leopold II, whose brief reign of less than two years ended in 1792. Balthasar Ferdinand Moll's gilded wall tomb to Count Leopold Daun, on the far wall, is significantly more extravagant, and includes a relief of the 1757 Battle of Kolin in which Daun trounced the Prussians. To get to the Georgskapelle, you must pass through the Lorettokapelle, at the far end of which lies the Herzgruftel (Little Heart Crypt), where, arranged neatly on two semicircular shelves, are 54 silver urns containing the hearts of the later Habsburgs. Guided tours in German take place on Mondays and Fridays at 11am & 3pm, or by phoning 533 7099.
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