Holy Spirit Church (Vienna)

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Holy Spirit Church on Herbststrasse
inside view
The raised high altar

The Heilig-Geist-Kirche is a Roman Catholic parish church in the 16th district of  Vienna, Ottakring . The sacred building, kept in a historical style , is the first reinforced concrete church in Austria.

History and architecture

The church, designed by the architect Jože Plečnik , was built between 1911 and 1913. Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg , wife of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, took over the patronage . It was also she who consecrated the Church to the Holy Spirit.

The main room has the basic shape of a basilica and thus, in contrast to Otto Wagner's church at Steinhof, cites historical forms, which corresponded more to the style ideas of the very religious Plečnik. The original plan for the church included a meeting room, a rectory and a tenement house. However, these had to be removed from the plans for lack of money. When the church was already under construction, a tall Venetian tower was removed for the same reason and the bell gable was added instead. Another sacrifice was five relief figures on the portal front , which were supposed to represent the Holy Spirit, the Savior and the three holy women .

Plečnik tried out reinforced concrete in the church . In the interior of the church, he replaced the arches to the side aisles with two freely spanned girders over 20 m. In this way, instead of the clear separation into the middle and side aisles, a kind of square overall space was created, which also allows a good view of the altar from the side aisles. For a long time the church was considered the first reinforced concrete church in Europe. This status should be given to the church of István Medgyaszay in Mulà, who was also a Wagner student.

Below the raised chancel is the crypt, in which Mass was celebrated as early as July 1911.

Plečnik himself worked in Prague from 1911 and could no longer follow the completion of his church in detail. Most of the interior work was not done according to his plans.

The building was heavily criticized after its completion. The Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand , described the church as a mixture of Russian bath , stable and temple of Venus . Today the Heilig-Geist-Kirche and the Zacherlhaus in the inner city are among the internationally known works of Plečnik.

Furnishing

crypt

The crypt under the chancel consists of a main room and three small grottos. The altar is based on the shape of the altar in the Carmelite Convict at Döbling von Plečnik. Red brick fragments were mixed into the concrete mass to reinforce the impression of a rock wall. The three grottos of the crypt represent:

  • the stable at Bethlehem
  • the Mount of Olives Grotto from the Garden of Gethsemane
  • the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem

In the crypt there are two pictures to the left and right of the altar, The Creation of Water (Müller) and Rahel weeps for her dead children ( Josef Engelhart ), as well as a baptismal font by Ferdinand Andri .

Main room

The high altar shows the work of the Holy Spirit and comes from Adolf Otto Holub (1882 – around 1920) based on the model of the church at Steinhof . The altarpiece is a representation of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit based on a design by Ferdinand Andri . The metal reliefs are by Michael Six . Two side altars are dedicated to St. Joseph and St. Consecrated to Boniface. The Way of the Cross is a work by the Polish woodcarver Josef Ruchala . To the left of the altar is a Sacred Heart People's Altar.

window

The paintings in six glass windows represent:

  • The temptation in paradise
  • The Thanksgiving Offering after the Flood
  • Moses with the tablets of the law on Sinai
  • The Annunciation of the Lord
  • The Pentecost miracle
  • The baptism of Jesus

The other windows show the four evangelists and Isaiah the prophet . The epistle page was painted in 1930 by R. Nagl, the gospel page in 1952 by Remigius Geyling .

Bells

There are two bells above the entrance. The smaller one (tone: dis 2 , weight: 150 kg), cast in 1930 by the Pfundner bell foundry, bears the inscription Christo Regi Friedericus Gustavus Me Consecravit (Christ, Friedrich Gustav consecrated me to the king ). The larger bell (tone: c 2 , weight: 234 kg), also cast by Pfundener and cast in 1956, bears the inscription Christ Rex, in te speravi, non confundar in aeternum (Christ the King, I hoped in you, I will forever not be ashamed).

organ

Prospectus of the Gollini organ
Play cabinet of the Gollini organ

On April 30, 1930, a new organ with 27 stops on two manuals and pedal was commissioned from Josef Panhuber ; after its completion, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer consecrated it on April 30, 1933. This instrument was initially equipped with a pneumatic action , but was converted to the electro-pneumatic system by Philipp Eppel in 1962 . After completing this work, on April 10, 1962, the organ was re-inaugurated.

When Herbert Gollini built a new 1842 pipe-counting organ with 29 registers on two manuals and pedal in 1980/81, 19 registers of the Panhuber organ could be reused, the remaining 10 registers were made new. The consecration of this organ was carried out on June 8, 1981 by Cardinal Franz König . In 2002 the parish decided to renovate the organ and entrusted Achim Reichmann with the implementation.

I main work Cg 3
Quintadena 16 ′
Principal 08th'
Hollow flute 08th'
Salicional 08th'
Octav 04 ′
flute 04 ′
Super octave 02 ′
Mixture IV 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Cimbel II 0 1 ⁄ 2 ′
Trumpet 08th'
II Rückpositiv Cg 3
Dumped 8th'
Praestant 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
Sesquialtera II 00 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Octave 2 '
recorder 2 ′
Nasard 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Scharff III
Krummhorn 8th'
Pedal Cf 1
Principal 16 ′
Sub-bass 16 ′
Octave bass 08th'
Covered bass 08th'
Chorale bass 04 '
Rauschpfeife III 00 02 ′
trombone 16 '
Trumpet 08th'
shawm 04 ′

literature

  • Damjan Prelovšek: Josef Plečnik. Viennese works from 1896-1914. Edition Tusch, Vienna 1979.
  • Damjan Prelovšek: Josef Plečnik 1872-1957. Architectura perennis. Residenz-Verlag, Salzburg, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-7017-0779-0 .
  • Adolph Stiller (Ed.): Josef Plečnik 1872-1957. Architect in Vienna, Prague, Laibach. Pustet, Salzburg 2006, ISBN 3-7025-0542-3 .
  • Arthur Rüegg (Ed.): The innocence of concrete. Paths to a material-specific architecture. gta-Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-85676-158-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Wadsack: The organs of the 16th district of Vienna . Vienna 2013, p. 52.
  2. ↑ Martin Wadsack: The organs of the 16th district of Vienna . Vienna 2013, p. 53.

Web links

Commons : Schmelzer Pfarrkirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 26 ″  N , 16 ° 19 ′ 21 ″  E