Heiligenstadt Church of St. Jakob

Southwest view of St. Jacob's Church

inside view

The Heiligenstadt Church of St. Jakob is one of the two churches in the Roman Catholic parish of Heiligenstadt in the 19th district of Döbling on the Heiligenstädter Pfarrplatz. It is considered one of the oldest churches outside of Vienna's city ​​center and is dedicated to St. Jacob.

history

Pfarrplatz Heiligenstadt - in the middle St. Jakob, on the right the former elementary school of Heiligenstadt

Organized Christianity and regular church services existed in Heiligenstadt from an early age. The origin of the Jakobskirche goes back to the 5th century.

From the year 1105 there are reports of a Severin cult practiced here. As can be seen from a document from Bishop Rüdiger von Passau from 1243, the church in Heiligenstadt was initially a branch church of St. Martin in Klosterneuburg and was only separated from it in 1246.

In 1263 a hospital and the pastor's apartment next to the St. Jakob chapel are mentioned for the first time. In 1307 Heiligenstadt was incorporated into Klosterneuburg Abbey. Since then, Augustinian Canons have been pastors of the Heiligenstadt community. At that time, her pastoral care also extended to the neighboring communities of Grinzing, Sievering, Salmannsdorf, Nussdorf, Ober- and Unterdöbling. The parish chronicle tells that in 1480 a pastor, two cooperators and five mounted chaplains were active.

During the first Turkish siege , the church was destroyed (October 14, 1529) and rebuilt in 1534, restored in 1668. During the second Turkish siege (1683) the church and the adjoining hospital were destroyed. Only the church was rebuilt. In 1745, Cardinal Prince von Kollonitz donated a particle of St. Severin , who has been venerated as a relic ever since. In 1752 it was given a tower.

In 1952/53, a Roman building that had been destroyed twice was unearthed during archaeological excavations in the Jakobskirche, both within the church and partly beyond it. Inside this building there are two early Christian graves. The bricks used for the graves come from the 10th Legion. To the north of the church there was a Roman cemetery, near which a grave from the Avar period was found in 1980. Another theory for the name of the village of Heiligenstadt is derived from this: in earlier times every cemetery was considered a "locus sanctus" . This cemetery may have been so characteristic of the village that developed in the Middle Ages that it was called Heiligenstadt. However, recent research rejects a connection with the grave of St. Severin.

The Melkite Greek Catholic community of Vienna also meets here today .

description

The church is a simple Romanesque complex. The current shape dates from the 12th century. The building consists of a single nave nave with a slightly shifted presbytery raised by two steps. There are three arched windows on the left, only two on the right. The Romanesque church consists of a nave with a square choir.

Pfarrplatz and Beethovenhaus

The old parish square next to the church is only accessible through narrow streets and has a very warm, homely character. It also has good acoustics , making it suitable for smaller outdoor events . For example, open-air concerts during the week of the Vienna Choirs are often held there.

There is a Beethoven house next to the parish church. It was a wine grower's house where Beethoven stayed in the summer of 1817.

literature

• Richard Groner: Vienna as it was , 6th edition, 1965. p. 258

swell

• Galerie Szaal: Hans Robert Pippal : Am Heiligenstädter Pfarrplatz , oil on panel, signed, 40 × 50 cm.

Web links

Commons : Heiligenstädter Church St. Jakob  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Parish Heiligenstadt - History of the Church

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Neumann: Vindobona, 1972, p. 110f, ISBN 3-205-08068-8
2. ^ Felix Czeike: Vienna Art & Culture Lexicon, p. 122, ISBN 3-7991-5769-7
3. ↑ Eastern Churches in Vienna> Eastern Catholic Churches  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   , University of Vienna> KTF> Institute for Historical Theology: Theology and History of the Christian East, accessed June 22, 2014.

Coordinates: 48 ° 15 '17.3 "  N , 16 ° 21' 32.5"  E