Johanneskirche Unterlaa

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Johanneskirche Unterlaa

The Church of St. Johann zu Unterlaa ( Johanneskirche ) is a Roman Catholic church in the Unterlaa district in the 10th Viennese district of Favoriten . It is considered to be one of the oldest churches in today's Vienna, as the high medieval components could go back to at least the first third of the 11th century. St.Johann zu Unterlaa is a branch church of the Oberlaa parish church .

history

The first sacred building to be found at this point was most likely a temple from the Roman settlement period. It was probably a wooden structure built on a strong stone foundation. The use of this building as a temple results from its central location in a semicircle of five buildings. Furthermore, the building is oriented so that one corner points exactly north. That the strong corner of the house faces north should repel the evil spirits. In this way numerous Roman temples were laid out in this region.

Above it, monks probably built the first church with a size of 9 × 7 m using stones from the Roman settlement. It would also explain why the church is so far out of the village center. In order to cover the remains of the pagan temple with a Christian spirit, the little church had to be built here and nowhere else. The builders of the church are likely to be identical to the five burials that were unearthed in the interior of the church during the excavation in 1974; other interpretations are based on the burial of priests from around 1030 (plus / minus 15 years). The first church was a simple hall church. The choir was added later.

In 1272 the church came into the possession of the Order of St. John (today: Order of Malta ) and was dedicated to the patron saint, St. John the Baptist . When the church was rebuilt after 1272, the south side was changed and a hospice was built, the building of which was connected to the north. The hospice itself was probably destroyed at the same time as the Unterlaa castle in 1465. Further changes took place in the baroque period. Presumably the church was previously a two-storey hospital church, according to the rules of the Order of St. John (that's why its original name was "Hospitaliter"). Later the retracted, octagonal choir or choir tower according to religious custom was built.

The church was largely destroyed in the course of the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. In 1686 it was rebuilt with a long house. The sacristy adjoining the choir tower to the south was not built until 1779. The church furnishings date from the 17th century, with the large, rustic altar crucifix from 1678 being particularly remarkable.

The type of construction of the church indicates an early development, as it is a choir tower church, in which the basement of the east tower became a secured sacred space. The church consists of a single nave nave . In the choir enters barrel vault on with lunettes. The sacristy connects to the south of the choir tower .

The church has the Maltese cross on the spire and on the church windows, as the Maltese (Order of St. John) had been the exclusive landlords in Unterlaa since the end of the 13th century. On December 4, 1272, the Viennese citizen Paltram sold his "munitio in Loe propre civitatem Wiennensem" for 300 silver marks to master Wilfing der Johanniter zu Mailberg in front of the Freithof . As a condition it was stipulated that the order must appoint six friars, two of them clergy, and that these brothers care for six poor or wounded people and also have to provide three armed men in the event of a battle or a crusade.

Holy Sepulcher Chapel (right)

Immediately next to St. John's Church there is a Holy Sepulcher Chapel based on the model of the one in Jerusalem. It has half-columns with blind arcades , sloping ventilation windows and a shingle roof. The chapel was built around 1700 and, like the Calvary and other chapels to the Holy Sepulcher, owes its creation to the longing for Jerusalem of the faithful. Inside is an anteroom and the actual burial chamber with a corpus niche on the north wall with a reclining figure of Christ.

In front the showroom, behind the excavations at the church

The area around the Johanneskirche and the nearby "Johannesberg" was settled in prehistoric times as well as in Roman times. Excavations have been carried out in and around the church since the 1960s. In addition to individual finds from the beginning of the Neolithic (6th millennium BC) and the Hallstatt period (around 700 to 500 BC), remains of a Roman settlement were uncovered. The Roman settlement was on Johannesberg, the associated cemetery was at the current location of the church. The first settlement from the 1st century was destroyed, when is unknown, but the tombstone of an indigenous Celt named Devomarus and his family proves that there has been continuous further settlement.

The excavations around the church and an archaeological showroom can be viewed on the first Sunday of each month from May to October. This showroom - in a small outbuilding - is looked after by the Favoriten District Museum . The church can be reached by public transport (Johanneskapelle bus stop).

See also

literature

  • Werner Schubert : Favoriten , Verlag Bezirksmuseum Favoriten, Vienna 1992.
  • Christine Klusacek / Kurt Stimmer: Favorites. Between yesterday and tomorrow , Mohl Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-901761-38-1 .
  • Maria Kinz: Livable favorites , J&V Edition Vienna, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-85058-083-0 .
  • Leopold Teifer: The farmers in Oberlaa, Unterlaa and Rothneusiedl , Landwirtschaftliches Casino Oberlaa (ed.), Vienna, November 2011.

Web links

Commons : Johanneskirche (Unterlaa)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klusacek / Stimmer: Favorites. Between yesterday and tomorrow , p. 148.
  2. ↑ a b Werner Schubert: Favoriten , pp. 35–37.
  3. ↑ a b Marian Kinz: Livable favorites , pp. 28–29.
  4. ↑ Klusacek / Stimmer: Favorites. Between yesterday and tomorrow , p. 200.
  5. ^ Maria Kinz: Livable favorites , p. 41.
  6. ↑ Leopold Teifer: Farmers in Oberlaa, Unterlaa and Rothneusiedl , S. 157th
  7. ↑ Klusacek / Stimmer: Favorites. Between yesterday and tomorrow , pp. 192–193.
  8. ↑ Text on the stone: DEVOMARO… / CI FI (LIO) A (NORUM) LXX… / EO DEVOM [ARI F [ILIO] AN (NORUM)] / XX ET VIC [CO DEVOMARI] / FI (LIO) MONEM [A …] / SI FI (LIA) CONIUG [I ET FIL (IIS) ET] / SIBI VIVA F [AC (IUNDUM) CURAVIT] = Monema places her husband Devomarus, who died at the age of 70, and her sons, one of whom is 20 years old became, this board. This stone is now exhibited in the Favoriten District Museum (Werner Schubert: Favoriten , pp. 15-16.)

Coordinates: 48 ° 7 ′ 55.2 "  N , 16 ° 25 ′ 13.4"  E