Johann Ernst von Thun

Who was Johann Ernst von Thun?

Johann Ernst von Thun was prince-archbishop of Salzburg, Austria, from 1687 to 1709. He was originally from Tyrol and he displayed a marked antipathy to the Italian designers and tastemakers that were emulated by many Austrians at the time. Upon his accession, he halted work on a church being built for an Italian order of monks and denied payment to Italian craftsmen.

The archbishop is best remembered as patron of the architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, a leader of Austrian Baroque church architecture. In 1697, the archbishop obliged all graduates of Salzburg's university to swear belief in the Immaculate Conception. Upon his death, Archbishop von Thun had his brain deposited in the university chapel, his entrails deposited in his Hospital Church, and his heart interred at his favorite Church of the Trinity.