Empress Elisabeth Memorial Church

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Empress Elisabeth Memorial Church on the Hochschneeberg

The Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Gedächtniskirche , also known as Elisabethkirche or Elisabethkirchlein for short , is a small Roman Catholic church on the Hochschneeberg in Lower Austria. It is not far from the mountain station of the Schneebergbahn . The Memorial Church belongs to the parish Puchberg am Schneeberg and is the highest church in the Archdiocese of Vienna at an altitude of 1796  m above sea level. A.

The church was built by order of Emperor Franz Joseph I in memory of Empress Elisabeth in 1901 according to plans by the architect Rudolf Goebel in Art Nouveau style. The consecration was carried out on September 5, 1901 by the Viennese Auxiliary Bishop Godfried Marschall .

In the anteroom there is a bronze medallion with the portrait of the empress. Opposite is a marble tablet with the verse by Peter Rosegger :

"Greetings to me, you beautiful, pure edelweiss blooming on a lonely height, sublime mourning symbol you of the wonderful woman!"

- Peter Rosegger

history

History of origin

Ceremony for ten years of consecration, September 5, 1911
Elisabeth Church with mountain station (2005)
Bronze relief of the empress

Since 1840 people toyed with the idea of ​​building a stone house with scientific equipment on the summit region of the Schneeberg, for which the Schneeberg researcher A. Schmid campaigned. Nothing happened until 1898, when, with the founding of the Schneebergfreunde Club, this house came to mind as a memorial to the builder of the cog railway, Leo Arnoldi . When Empress Elisabeth was murdered, it was planned to immortalize her with the building. An observatory with a lookout tower and a votive room should be built. A soul mass was to be celebrated there every year on the anniversary of the death of the empress. Some experts came together to plan the project specifically; However, the execution failed due to the expected costs. Government councilor Zehden suggested building a memorial church first and refraining from the observatory. In the spring of 1899, the Schneebergfreunde Club dissolved due to financial difficulties, whereupon the plan to perpetuate Leo Arnoldi instead of Empress Sissi was lost.

With the support of the then local pastor Anton Falk, the Viennese architect Rudolf Goebel took matters into his own hands, drafted plans and tried to build the church with two friends. Auxiliary Bishop Johann Baptist Schneider also supported the concept when he was on vacation for a few days in Puchberg. A construction committee was promptly founded, with Anton Falk as its chairman. Financial problems were solved by the newly founded Women's Committee in Vienna, which had set itself the task of raising funds. The building was under the protection of Archduke Rainer's wife , Maria Karoline ( Archduchess Marie , 1825–1915). The chairman suggested the Luxboden for the construction, southeast of the terminus of the cog railway, which was leased by the landowner Johann Ernst Graf Hoyos-Sprinzenstein for a recognition interest (700 m²).

Building history

After the plans were completed by the architect Rudolf Goebel, Pastor Anton Falk laid the foundation stone in the spring of 1899. From September 9th of the same year there was a construction freeze due to the sudden onset of winter. At the beginning of the turn of the century, the Vienna Building Committee finally completed the construction due to a lack of financial means. Falk took control and got the Puchberg construction company Lorenz Dirtl to continue working on June 22, 1900. The next construction freeze took place on October 22nd of the same year. By then, the shell and the exterior plastering had been completed, the dome construction and grating were made by the art locksmith Alexander Nehr . The building was completed in the summer of 1901. The solemn laying of the keystone took place on September 4, 1901. A day later, the church was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Godfried Marschall in the presence of Archduke Rainer.

In 1903 the external work on the site ended. Paintings were only made in 1907 by the two kk court decoration painters Knaus and Pruszinsky. Before the 10th anniversary, the popular Viennese café animal Ludwig Riedl (1858-1919) took over the maintenance of the church. In 1914 the dome got a star mosaic made of Venetian glass.

Since 1935 the church property (like the Schneeberg in general because it belongs to the catchment area of ​​the 1st Viennese spring water pipeline ) has belonged to the City of Vienna , the church building is registered as a super- certificate. The Elisabethkirche was also damaged in the Second World War , whereupon in 1949 funds were asked for a renovation by the Association for the Preservation of the Elisabeth Memorial Church on Hochschneeberg, which was founded in 1928 . Due to unsatisfactory partial renovations, a general renovation by the Lower Austrian Economic Association took place from 1955 . However, further damage was caused by winter storms. Since the association was no longer up to the task, it was dissolved on December 30, 1968, so that the local priest was responsible for maintenance ever since. Between 1974 and 1981, further renovations took place with the help of the Province of Lower Austria and the Federal Monuments Office . In 1985 the church was repainted and the five statues were restored. The exterior was renovated four years later. In 1996 the copper roof was renewed. At the same time, a perforated window sash was attached to the entrance opening so that the dome mosaic has remained mold-free to this day. In 2010 the building was renovated again.

The church is a listed building , which has also been entered in the land register since 2008.

photos

  • View of the altar

  • One of the stained glass windows

  • Interior view of the dome

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wikimedia Commons: Figure memorial plaque
  2. ^ Puchberg - The parish on the highest mountain in Lower Austria on Stephanscom.at, accessed on February 5, 2010
  3. ^ Rudolf Goebel. In: Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien . Vienna 2007. Retrieved on February 5, 2010
  4. ↑ a b The Elisabeth Church on the Hochschneeberg. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 13302/1901, September 6, 1901, p. 5. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  5. ↑ Wikimedia Commons: Figure inscription
  6. ↑ a b Tenth anniversary of the Empress Elisabeth Church. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 16895/1911, September 5, 1911, p. 4 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfpas well as the
    Empress Elisabeth memorial service on the Hochschneeberg. In:  Die Neue Zeitung , No. 245/1911 (Volume IV), September 6, 1911, p. 3, center left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nzg.
  7. ↑ Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Gedächtniskirche am Hochschneeberg, magazine 2006, p. 18 f.
  8. ↑ Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Gedächtniskirche am Hochschneeberg, magazine 2006, p. 19 f.
  9. ↑ Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Gedächtniskirche am Hochschneeberg, magazine 2006, p. 20.
  10. ↑ Land register district court Neunkirchen, cadastral community 23328 Puchberg am Schneeberg, deposit number 1076, property with an area of ​​5300802 m² = 5.3 km². (accessed August 12, 2018).
  11. ↑ Deposit number 1076, lot no . 407,560 m² (accessed August 12, 2018).
  12. ↑ Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Gedächtniskirche am Hochschneeberg, magazine 2006, p. 21 f.

Web links

Commons : Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Gedächtniskirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 ′ 31 ″  N , 15 ° 50 ′ 7 ″  E