Some cities look still from a distance, as if time itself slows around their rooftops. Vienna is one of those places. Stand before Stephansdom — its towers sharp against the sky, its stones patterned like woven shadow — and it feels less like architecture and more like memory made solid. The cathedral doesn’t just belong to Vienna; it watches over it. And once, long before cafés and waltzes and imperial ceremony became part of its rhythm, those stones stood witness to a day when the city came terrifyingly close to disappearing.