Coptic St. Mark's Church (Vienna)

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The Sankt-Markus-Kirche in Vienna

The Coptic Mark's Church is the oldest church of the Copts in Vienna. Until the establishment of the Coptic Church of the Blessed Virgin of Zeitoun in 2004, it was the only church of this Christian community in the federal capital. It is mainly known by the population as the Russian Church . It is located on Wagramer Strasse in the Kaisermühlen district of Vienna's 22nd district, Donaustadt .

history

The church building was erected during the First World War as a Catholic emergency church according to plans by the architect Hans Prutscher in 1917 with the help of Russian prisoners of war . Because of this, and because of the borrowing from north-eastern European styles, the church has always been popularly called the Russian Church. It was consecrated as Christ the King's Church in 1922. It was incorporated as a branch church of the parish Kaisermühlen .

After the UN City was built directly behind the church in the 1970s , it was made available by the Catholic Church to the UN officials of other denominations working there for their services. Since then, both Protestant and Coptic church services have taken place regularly. The interior of the church was adapted in such a way that the Copts could also hold their services, during which the altar must not be visible to the church people.

The growth of the Coptic community meant that it became the main user of the building. At the end of the 1990s, the Coptic Church in Vienna already consisted of around 5000 members, which is why a new church building was planned, the Church of the Holy Virgin of Zeitoun in the Danube city. At the same time, a separate Coptic diocese was created for Austria. The new church was made into a bishop's church in 2004. In order to be able to meet the increased demands of the community in the field of pastoral care, which also resulted from the fact that the Coptic Church was officially recognized in Austria in 2003, the Russian Church was not replaced by the new church, but remained as the second church of the Copts in Vienna exist. For this purpose, the church was handed over by the Catholic Church to the Coptic Orthodox Church, which it gave to St. Saint Mark the Evangelist consecrated. Because according to tradition, he founded the Egyptian Church; and the Coptic Pope regards himself as his successor. After the handover to the Copts, the interior of the church was redesigned according to their worship service requirements.

On May 26, 2013, the 118th successor of the St. Markus See came to Austria and consecrated the church and the icon with the myroon oil.

Building description

It is a free-standing hall church in exposed brick, the entrance front of which has a plastered facade with relief medallions. A gable rider with a crucifix rises above it. The design of the church is stylistically assigned to the Heimatstil, which is inspired by north-eastern European stylistic elements.

Between the two entrance gates there is a large majolica relief of the crucified with soldiers, which is intended to serve as a memory of those who fell in the First World War. The design for this comes from the architect Otto Prutscher and was created in 1933 by the sculptor A. Fleischmann. Over the gates and the relief is a canopy with gargoyles made of glazed clay.

literature

  • Dehio Handbook Vienna. X. to XIX. and XXI. to XXIII. District . Verlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1996

Web links

Commons : Coptic Markuskirche Vienna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 14 ′ 4 "  N , 16 ° 25 ′ 11.6"  E