Invalidenhauskirche

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Invalidenhauskirche, view from the south

The Invalidenhauskirche is a north-facing Roman Catholic church building in the Speising part of Vienna's 13th district Hietzing at Fasangartengasse 101. The church consecrated to St. Johannes Nepomuk is built in Art Nouveau style with historical elements. It is the seat of the military parish of Vienna and is in accordance with decision of the Federal Monuments Office as part of the overall system former Invalidenhaus under monument protection .

history

prehistory

The Invalidenhauskirche is the central building of the former Invalidenhaus, its history is closely linked to that of the Invalidenhaus.

Until 1787, the disabled military were housed in a care facility in Alservorstadt . In 1783, Emperor Joseph II decided that in the area of ​​today's Invalidenstrasse and the Wien-Mitte train station in the III. After a corresponding expansion by the master builder Josef Gerl , the poor house located in the Viennese municipal district was to be used as a new house for the disabled so that the disabled military could move into this newly adapted building in 1787.

After 125 years, the disabled house no longer met the hygienic requirements and the state of construction had deteriorated to such an extent that the building had to be demolished due to the increase in the level of Landstraßer Hauptstrasse. The necessary new building should take place on the outskirts of the city "in the countryside".

Building and parish history

In March 1908, the War Ministry acquired a 33,000 m² building site "on the upper Stranzenberg" and commissioned the Allgemeine Österreichische Baugesellschaft to build the new building. Planning and construction supervision were entrusted to the general major general Rudolf Gall, the military civil engineer Julius Hruschka and the architect Hans Schneider , from whom the plans originate.

In just sixteen months, eleven pavilion- style objects were erected on this building site in the middle of a park : Six objects as residential buildings for the team consisting of officers, NCOs and soldiers, the hospital, a morgue, a stable with a carriage shed, a glass house and as the center of the Plant the object V. with the church, the hall of honor and the officers' mess . The stable building with the carriage shed and the glass house no longer exist, so that the entire complex only consists of 9 objects. Numerous objects from the old handicapped house were transferred to the church and the adjoining hall of honor, which form the present day furnishings. The complex was handed over to its intended use on December 3, 1909 and on May 5, 1910, the church was consecrated by Field Bishop Coloman Belopotocky in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Because of the often held field services followed by a military parade , the building was carried out with a relatively large presbytery and without a communion grille.

The Invalidenhauskirche was looked after by military chaplains until the end of the First World War in 1918 . After that, the Invalidenhaus was continued as a military foundation house and looked after by world priests . A bell was purchased in 1930 and the building was completely restored in 1934. In 1938 a communion grid with the four evangelist symbols was attached to bronze plaques, the design of which was made by Hans Prutscher in 1934.

During the Second World War , the bell was confiscated and melted down as a metal donation from the German people . The church was largely spared from other effects of the war, with the exception of minor damage to the dome from shrapnel, which was repaired after the end of the war.

After the end of the war, the church was used as a place of worship for the residents of the area and the federal employees who lived in the pavilion rooms that had been converted into apartments. In 1947 the three-step staircase was added and in 1949 a new bell was purchased.

On May 1, 1952, Cardinal Innitzer set up a parish exposition “St. Johann am Fasangarten ”, which was created by separating and amalgamating parts of the parishes of Hetzendorf , Hietzing and Lainz and which was raised to an independent parish on January 1, 1955. The Invalidenhauskirche was thus a parish church. This parish was converted into the parish of St. Hemma in 1967 and moved into a new church building, the parish church of St. Hemma . The two bells were also transferred from the Invalidenhauskirche to St. Hemma. From then on, the Invalidenhauskirche was a branch church of St. Hemma.

The wish to hand over the Invalidenhauskirche to the military chaplaincy because of its proximity to the then Fasangartenkaserne (today Maria-Theresien-Kaserne ) and to the Fasangartensiedlung, which was mainly inhabited by army members, started in 1961 from the parish of St. Hemma. In 1984 an advance by the then military provisional prelate Mag. Franz Gruber and the military commander of the Vienna Military Command , Karl Majcen, finally led to success and the transfer of the property was initiated by the Archdiocese of Vienna .

High altar, popular altar and ambo

From 1986 the building complex was extensively renovated, which began under Karl Majcen and ended in 1999 under Karl Semlitsch . First, the outside of the church was renovated and the facade was plastered in yellow. In the interior, the communion grille was removed and the people's altar made by the workshops of the military equipment establishment was set up, onto which the panels with the evangelist symbols were transferred from the communion grille.

Since January 1st, 1987 the Invalidenhauskirche has been a military parish church “St. Johann Nepomuk ”of the Vienna Military Command. The Vienna Military Parish has its seat in the premises of the former officers' mess.

In 2010 the 100th anniversary celebrations took place with the Apostolic Nuncio of Austria, Archbishop Peter Zurbriggen .

Building description

Outside

The church with echoes of the secessionist style is a free-standing central building with a monumental dome. A flight of stairs leads to the grooved main façade in the south, behind the domed central projecting the domed helmet crowned by a lantern with a clock and a cross. The facade is summarized by a large round arch, in which there is an aedicula portal with Tuscan half-columns and a thermal bath window . The inscription "VENITE ADOREMUS" is placed in the pediment triangle above the window. There is a secessionist angel relief on each of the two framing pilaster strips. The central projection is flanked by two domed turrets.

Inside

Inside the church is a central room with a pendent dome , to which the patriotic hall of honor is attached to the east and the former officers' mess to the north and west.

Furnishing

church

Font at the entrance to the church

When entering the church, the renovated baptismal font that was erected in May 1990 at the beginning of the aisle is noticeable.

On both sides of the entrance are holy water basins with aediculan niches above, in which there are statues: St. Anthony on the left, St. Judas Thaddäus on the right .

From the old Invalidenhaus church comes the baroque altarpiece on the left side, which depicts the death of St. Francis Xavier . Above the tabernacle is a relic monstrance with a relic of Emperor Karl from the hand of the Carinthian goldsmith and restorer Guido Kapsch . It was made from shrapnel from an idea of ​​the former military dean Johann Dulla , which soldiers of the Austrian Armed Forces collected during their stay on the Golan as part of the UNTSO mission .

Opposite this side altar, a door with military emblems on the right side of the church provides access to the hall of honor. Above the door is a cartouche with the motto "Christ pax nostra" by the military bishop Christian Werner , who commemorates the renovation in 2002 under Christian Werner. A picture of Mary, which was a gift from the imperial family, hangs over the door.

Tabernacle door with relief Descent from the Cross

On the pulpit there are three oval oil paintings by Adelheid Malecki (1882–1949) from 1929. They show the suffering Christ accompanied by depictions of Mary and John the Baptist .

Objects from the Invalidenhauskirche in the III. District, in particular the fire-gilded relief Deposition from the Cross on the tabernacle door by Georg Raphael Donner from 1735. On the inside, the tabernacle is labeled "1819". To the right of the high altar is a baroque console statuette of St. Nepomuk, on the left side of the high altar is a console statuette of the Madonna and Child . Both statuettes are surrounded by Art Nouveau frames on the wall. In the right front corner of the church there is a bust made by Hans Schwathe of Emperor Karl , the last emperor of Austria , who was beatified in 2004 .

There are also remarkable secessionist wheel chandeliers in the church.

Hall of honor

Archduke Karl with his staff in the battle of Aspern

The hall of honor attached to the east is dominated by two monumental paintings on both sides. On the south side on horseback “Field Marshal Radetzky after the victory near Leipzig ” and on the north side “ Archduke Karl with his staff in the battle of Aspern ”. These are copies of two commissioned works by Johann Peter Krafft for the old Invalidenhaus, the originals of which are kept in the Vienna Army History Museum because the originals were too big for the new premises.

In the past, souvenirs of the old field marshal as well as his death mask and the death chair were kept here. Above the entrance to the church is a representation of Emperor Joseph II and on both sides of the entrance there are eight busts of important men in Austrian history from the old Invalidenhaus: Prinz Eugen , Montecuccoli , Starhemberg , Baden-Baden , Khevenhüller , Daun , Laudon and Lacy .

Four paintings from the old invalids' house hang over the busts. To the left of the entrance are the pictures of Archdukes Karl and Albrecht and on the right a second portrait of Archduke Karl and a representation of the former house of the disabled.

On the opposite wall are two pictures of Emperor Franz Josef. The picture on the left from 1853 shows the young emperor. It has a frame from the same period with a crown showing a double-headed eagle and a crown. To the right of it hangs a picture of the emperor by Theodor Breitwieser from 1909, the frame of which is based on that of the first picture and which is crowned by a monogram of the emperor.

See also

Web links

Commons : Invalidenhauskirche  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 1: A – Da. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 .
  • Festschrift for the 100th anniversary "1910–2010 St.Johann Nepomuk am Fasangarten - From the Invalidenhaus to the military parish in Vienna", ed. Military ore dean Harald Tripp, Verlag Militaria 2010, ISBN 978-3-902526-40-3

Remarks

  1. ↑ "Come, let us worship"
  2. ↑ The location in the immediate vicinity of the entrance is intended to commemorate baptism and sonship with God and symbolize the early Christian practice of gradual integration into the church.
  3. ↑ "Christ is our peace"
  4. ↑ The statuette is said to come from the Alservorstadt, where it is said to have been the object of worship by pilgrims.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vienna - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento of October 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF), ( CSV ( Memento of October 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive )). Federal Monuments Office , as of June 23, 2017.
  2. ^ Franz Gruber on the website of the Catholic Military Pastoral Care Austria , accessed on May 30, 2015
  3. ↑ Festschrift for the 100th anniversary

Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′ 23 "  N , 16 ° 17 ′ 48"  E