Parish Church Penzing

Parish church Penzing (northwest view)

Interior view towards the choir

The parish church Penzing is the parish church of the Roman Catholic parish Penzing in the 14th Viennese district Penzing in the Einwanggasse 30A. It is consecrated to St. James the Elder and the oldest of the Penzing deanery .

history

In 1267 Rudiger de Zolre handed over a plot of oak vegetation for the construction of a chapel, after which the chapel was built and later expanded into a church. The church was badly damaged during the Turkish sieges of the city of Vienna in 1529 and 1683. After the church was devastated by the French in 1805 ( Third Coalition War ) and 1809 ( Fifth Coalition War ), the then owner of the Penzing estate, Franz Xaver Mayr , had it renovated in 1812.

The church was surrounded by a cemetery, which was finally abandoned in 1879. On the edge of the settlement at that time, a suitable piece of land was acquired in 1856 and the new cemetery was inaugurated on October 9, 1859. The cemetery is now in the middle of Matznerpark (Penzing parish cemetery, Einwanggasse 55). In front of the church is a late Gothic tabernacle pillar from the 15th century, which was a light column in the cemetery at that time.

The tower was destroyed by fire in 1945 and rebuilt, but now with a pitched roof instead of the previous onion roof. Its height is 38.33 meters.

The canonized Premonstratensian canon and priest Jakob Franz Alexander Kern was baptized in the church on April 19, 1897.

Building history

A chapel was built in the 13th century and a Gothic church was built over it in the 14th century. In the 15th century, the nave was widened towards the south. In 1758 the church was rebuilt in baroque style by court architect Matthias Gerl at the instigation of Maria Theresa . Among other things, he expanded the presbytery to the south to almost the same width as the nave, relocated the main entrance from the south side to the west side and redesigned the porch of the former south entrance to the Sacred Heart Chapel. Since the 18th century, smaller additions have been made, such as a new sacristy on the west side of the tower, the addition of the confessional chapel (today's Jakobusbrunnen) on the south side of the nave and enlargement of the porch at the west portal.

Altars

High altar

The high altar from 1776 is a donation from Archbishop Cardinal Count Christoph Anton von Migazzi . The altarpiece comes from the school of the baroque painter Franz Anton Maulbertsch and shows St. Jacob the Elder . On both sides of the altar there is a roughly life-size figure; on the right St. Joachim with little Maria by the hand and St. Joseph with the baby Jesus in his arms.

The altar leaves on the side altars are works by the painter Johann Nepomuk Höfel from 1845, but the altars themselves are older. The altarpiece on the left side altar has the motif crucifixion of Christ and that of St. Dominic receiving the rosary from Our Lady .

organ

Organ of the parish church

The baroque organ was installed between 1774 and 1776. In 1866 this was rebuilt by the master organ builder Mathias (Matthäus) Mauracher from Salzburg . In the course of the major interior renovation in 1980, the organ was given a completely new work by the organ building company M. Walcker-Mayer from Guntramsdorf in 1981 with 1130 pipes and 18 registers , divided into two manuals and pedal . The baroque upper part of the main case and the front wall of the rear positive still come from the original organ . The case is decorated with putti and the statues of King David with harp , St. Nepomuk , the founder of the order St. Dominic and St. Cecillia . On the crowned arch above the organ case is the group of letters “JZ PF 1776”, which can be broken down with “Josef Zandonatti Parochus Fecit” (made by Pastor Josef Zandonatti).

Tower bells

The chime consists of four bells with a diameter of 130, 96, 85 and 67 cm. With the exception of the smallest bell, in both world wars the bells had to be removed for melting. In the fall of 1953 two new bells were raised and in 1959 another one, weighing 1,256 kg, was the largest, cast by the Bell Foundry in Pfundner .

Penzinger light column

The Penzinger light column is a late Gothic tabernacle pillar from the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. It consists of a two-tiered base and an octagonal column. On top a light house with eight pillars and below this a decorated bay window with a stone relief depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ . There is a chimney opening near the base and bay side. Originally it stood as a death lamp or cemetery lamp in the middle of the cemetery surrounding the church. After the cemetery was closed, it was moved across the street from the main portal of the church.

According to legend, a boy is said to have hidden from Turkish soldiers there in 1683. The pillar is owned by the City of Vienna, it is a listed building and is listed in the “Vienna Cultural Property” as a small sacred monument.

Church life

The parish of Penzing is located in the Vicariate City of the Archdiocese of Vienna . It is part of the development area Stadtdekanat 14 Ost. The parish covers an area with 16,000 inhabitants, about 40 percent of whom are Catholics. It is home to the KISI Club and the Boy Scout Group 38. There is also a Caritas Vienna Le + O distribution point where food is distributed to people at risk of poverty.