Empress Anna of Tyrol
*04.10.1585 Innsbruck - †15.12.1618 Vienna
Empress of the Holy Roman Empire
Queen of Hungary
Queen of Bohemia
Archduchess of Austria
Anna was the daughter of Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol and his second wife, Anna Katharina of Mantua. She married Emperor Matthias in 1611 and died childless in 1618, a few months before her husband.
Like her mother and sister, who had both decided to devote their lives to the Servite convent in Innsbruck, the Empress was also exceptionally pious. This is evidenced by the objects she used for her personal devotions, which are kept in the Spiritual Treasury in Vienna, and devotional images depicting her portrait alongside figures from the history of salvation. She had received the Golden Rose from Pope Paul V. Borghese, with which the Pope honoured a prominent figure every year on Laetare Sunday.
Through her foundation, Anna is the actual founder of the Imperial Crypt.
The sarcophagus
The chest sarcophagus displays clear physicality: its house shape is based on the ancient Egyptian belief that the coffin was the home of the dead.
The only decorations are lion's head handles, engravings on the lid with inscriptions, and a cross and coat of arms.
The feet are shaped like massive eagle claws enclosing the balls; they were added in 1755 by Balthazar Ferdinand Moll on behalf of Maria Theresa. Previously, there were simple wooden planks under the coffin.
The feet are shaped like massive eagle claws enclosing the balls; they were added in 1755 by Balthazar Ferdinand Moll on behalf of Maria Theresa. Previously, there were simple wooden planks under the coffin. On each of the two side walls there are three lion heads with rings as handles, and at the head and foot ends are St. Mary and St. John. Below them, in a rich cartouche, is the crowned imperial eagle with the square coat of arms on its chest. The coat of arms is placed on its tip and divided into four fields, showing the Bohemian and Hungarian coats of arms and the letter A below. Beneath the eagle, crowned by an angel's head with outstretched wings, is the inscription engraved on the coffin. It reads:
DOMS
MONVMENTVM SERENISSIMAE AUGUSTISS. INPERATRICIC ANNAE PIAE CONIVGIS AUGUSTISS. IMPER. MATHIAE. REGINAE HUNGARIAE ET BOHEMIAE. ARCHIDUCIS AUSTRIAE. ETC. PIE DEFUCTAE VITA ET IMPERIO DIE XV MENSIS DECEMBRIS ANNO DNI MDCXVIII.
Consecrated to God, the best and greatest. Coffin of the most serene and sublime Empress Anna, the pious wife of the sublime Emperor Matthias, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria etc., who piously departed from the life of government on the 15th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1618.
In 1852, after restoration work, the remains of the body were placed in a new wooden coffin.