Georg Matthäus Vischer

Who is Georg Matthäus Vischer?

Georg Matthäus Vischer was an Austrian topographer, cartographer, engraver and parish priest in Leonstein and Vienna.

Vischer was born in Wenns. Despite his clerical vocation, geography and topographical surveys were Vischer's true calling. On behalf of nobility and clergy he compiled maps and created engravings and drawings of more than 1000 cities, castles, manors, abbeys and cloisters in the regions of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Upper Styria, Lower Styria, Moravia and Hungary. In most cases Vischer's engravings are amongst the oldest preserved depections of these structures. He is regarded as one of the most important Austrian cartographers and topographers of his time. He died, aged 58, in Linz.

Characteristic Vischer-Engraving of Kammer Castle on Lake Attersee, 1672

Copper engraving of Starhemberg Castle, 1672

Illuminated engraving of Wilfersdorf Castle, 1674

Celje, Topographia Ducatus Stiriae, Graz 1681