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Thus, some time in the year 1740, Reutter marched away from
Hainburg with the little Joseph, and Hainburg knew the little
Joseph no more. Vienna was now to be his home for ten long years
of dreary pupilage and genteel starvation. In those days, and for
long after, St Stephen's Cathedral was described as "the first
church in the empire," and it is still, with its magnificent
spire, the most important edifice in Vienna. Erected in 1258 and
1276 on the site of a church dating from 1144, it was not finally
completed until 1446. It is in the form of a Latin cross, and is
355 feet long. The roof is covered with coloured tiles, and the
rich groined vaulting is borne by eighteen massive pillars,
adorned with more than a hundred statuettes. Since 1852 the
building has been thoroughly restored, but in all essentials
it remains as it was when Haydn sang in it as a choir-boy.
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