Kaasgraben Church

Kaasgraben Church

Lent interior

The Kaasgraben Church , also known as the pilgrimage church “Mariä pain” , is a Roman Catholic branch and pilgrimage church in the Grinzing district of the 19th district of Vienna Döbling . The Church has been supported by the Order of the Oblates of St. Franz von Sales looks after, since 1939 it has been a parish church . Since 1985 the seat of the provincial leadership of the Austro-South German province of this religious community has been located there.

It owes the name Kaasgrabenkirche to an old field name, which probably goes back to iron and sulfur-containing water (mineral springs) and the smell and color was similar to cheese water . In any case, around 1280 the name Chezwazzeresgraben , 1331 Cheswassergraben, is proven.

history

There is a legend about the Kaasgraben Church, according to which a young woman and her child were startled by Turkish soldiers in search of berries during the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1683 and is said to have hid behind an elderberry bush . When the soldiers followed the footsteps, they saw the swallows brooding in the bush and assumed that no one could hide behind them. Thereupon the Turks turned back and the woman donated a wayside shrine for Mary's help , the "Swallow Mother of God", for which there is no evidence.

Portrait medallion of the founder in the church entrance (by Hans Schwathe , 1922)

In the 19th century, the property of today's church was owned by the large wagon owner Kothbauer, who owned sand pits in Kaasgraben. He also owned a house at Zum kleine Sperl in Ortisei (today in the 7th district of Neubau ), in the courtyard of which there was an almost life-size, much venerated Pietà statue. When Kothbauer's house was demolished, he transferred this statue to the location of today's church and, according to legend, built a small chapel above it in 1883 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the miraculous salvation. Kothbauer also ran a wine tavern and devotional merchants and musicians soon came to play in the restaurant. In the end, Kothbauer also had swings and shooting galleries built, so that the “Schwalbenkapelle” soon became famous and was known as the “chapel with a wine tavern”. Due to Kothbauer's business acumen, it is also assumed that he invented the legend himself and then spread it through newspapers. After the success of the “Heurigenkapelle” had been so great, many of the Grinzinger and Sieveringer Heurigen hosts saw their business threatened. In 1903 the “pious” company was therefore closed.

Thereupon Stefan Esders , the operator of the Viennese department store Zur Große Fabrik ( Mariahilfer Straße 18), bought the property and had the chapel demolished. He built a villa and park for his family on neighboring properties and donated the money to build a real pilgrimage church. This was built between 1909 and 1910 on the site of the chapel by the architects Gustav Orglmeister and Franz Kupka. The foundation stone was laid on April 26, 1909, and about a year later, on April 30, 1910, Auxiliary Bishop Godfried Marschall consecrated the church. Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria attended the consecration on behalf of the emperor.

On January 1, 2016, the parish was dissolved and the area of ​​the parish of Franz von Sales was added. Since then, the Kaasgrabenkirche has been a branch church of the parish of Franz von Sales.

Building

Kaasgraben Church, south view

The church was built in the neo-baroque style by the Viennese architects Franz Kupka and Gustav Orglmeister . The staircases, which rise in the shape of a horseshoe, bear stone reliefs on the inner side, showing a way of the cross by the sculptors Franz Abel and Paul Paintl; from which the pictures of the Stations of the Cross inside the church come. To the left of the church entrance is the portrait of the founder Esders. The bright church interior directs the gaze to the high altar with the baroque Madonna figure. The altarpiece behind it shows Mary worshiping angels in a representation by Rudolf Fuchs. To the right and left of the altar are statues of St. Francis de Sales and St. Bernard . There is also a statue of King Louis IX above the entrance to the sacristy . and opposite that of Holy Emperor Heinrich II. The last three named were the namesake of the Esders brothers.

In addition to the original furnishings, the church also has a modern chapel to commemorate the Danube Swabians who were expelled from Yugoslavia and Hungary . There is also a memorial plaque on the church for the Catholic Hans Karl von Zessner-Spitzenberg who was arrested here in 1938 and who died after a few months in the Dachau concentration camp .

The founder Stefan Esders was buried in the crypt designed by Hans Schwathe with the life-size marble tomb “Resurrection of Christ”. This, like the votive offerings from the old swallow chapel that had been kept in the crypt, was destroyed in a bombing raid on March 12, 1945.

The adjoining monastery building was home to a theological training institute of the congregation from 1914 and also housed a mission museum until it was destroyed in 1945.

organ

Gerhard Hradetzky organ (1995)

The first organ came from the “Cäcilia” organ building company and was briefly set up in Salzburg Cathedral for presentation purposes. After it was built in the Kaasgraben Church, it was opened on September 28, 1924 by Prelate Dr. Pawlikowski dedicated , played in the instrument of was Vinzenz Goller .

The new organ was built in 1995 by the organ builder Gerhard Hradetzky and has 2 manuals and a pedal . In 2003 the number of their registers was increased from 24 to 28.

literature

• Felix Czeike (ed.): Kaasgrabenkirche. In:  Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 3, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-218-00545-0 , pp. 406-407 ( digitized version , entry in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna).
• Christof Haverkamp: From Haren via Brussels to Vienna - The story of the textile merchant Stefan Esders . in: Yearbook of the Emsländischen Heimatbund , Volume 53, Sögel 2007, ISSN  0448-1410 , pp. 9–44, especially pp. 21–22.
• Christine Klusacek, Kurt Stimmer: Döbling. From the belt to the vineyards . Compress, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-900607-06-0 .
• Godehard Schwarz: Döbling. Ten historical walks through Vienna's 19th district . Association of Wiener Volksbildung, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-900799-56-3 .

Web links

Commons : Kaasgrabenkirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kaasgraben parish

swell

1. ↑ Company brochure (1924/25) of "CÄCILIA", Österreichische Orgelbau-AG Salzburg, p. 25.
2. ^ Organ consecration in Döbling. In:  Reichspost , September 29, 1924, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).

Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 12 ″  N , 16 ° 19 ′ 59 ″  E