Piarist Church Maria Treu (Vienna)

Piarist Church in Vienna

The Piarist Church of Maria Treu is a Baroque Roman Catholic parish church on Jodok-Fink-Platz in the 8th district of Josefstadt in Vienna .

history

The name of the church refers to the miraculous image of Maria Treu in Josefstadt , which was painted by Josef Herz on the occasion of the plague epidemic in 1713 and transferred from today's Chapel of Sorrows to the new church. From 1721 the patronage after this picture was “Maria Treu”.

The church was built from 1698 to 1719 - presumably according to plans by Lukas von Hildebrandt - as a religious order of the Piarists , who also maintained a grammar school in Josefstadt. Master stonemasons Sebastian Regondi and Joseph Winkler were in charge .

In 1753 the renovation was completed by Mathias Gerl .

The church was first restored around 1890. The facade ( Borrominesque serpentine) is the only Viennese example of a convex facade in the style of the Roman churches Santi Luca e Martina and Santa Maria della Pace by Pietro da Cortona .

In 1862, Maria-Treu-Gasse in Josefstadt was named after the church, and in 1929 the section of Piaristengasse directly in front of the church in Jodok-Fink- Platz . The Piarist high school has also been located there in the immediate vicinity of the church since 1701 .

Pope Pius XII elevated the church on August 27, 1949 with the Apostolic Letter Trecentesimum annum to the rank of minor basilica .

description

inside view

The church forms the center of the plaza ensemble; the left wing of the considerable square is formed by the Piarist College, the right by the Löwenburgkonvikt and in the middle is the Marian Column, donated in 1713. The two-tower facade has a slightly arched middle section and a column structure. From 1858 to 1860, the two towers built in 1752 without helmets were raised by the Bohemian master builder Franz Sitte , provided with pointed roofs and the facade was given its current appearance.

The interior of the church has an extremely complicated floor plan. The center of the cruciform central space forms an almost circular oval with a flat dome, which is surrounded by six side altars. The ceiling frescoes are one of Franz Anton Maulbertsch's main works : five dome frescoes that the most important painter of the Austrian late baroque period created in 1752 and 1753. In the main dome there is a depiction of the Assumption of Mary into heaven, while the rim depicts scenes from the Old and New Testaments. All figures are intertwined, like in a surging river; in the composition the color dominates over the contour. The construction, which is in the foreground with Daniel Gran , the early Paul Troger and later with Classicism , takes a back seat in favor of the play of light and color.

organ

The "Buckow Organ"

The organ was made from 1856 to 1858 by the organ builder Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Buckow, who was based in the Silesian Hirschberg (today's Jelenia Góra ), using the previous organ by Joseph Loyp (1843) . It is a purely mechanical slide organ with 36 registers on three manuals and pedal and has 2416 pipes .

On November 21, 1861, Anton Bruckner passed his practical composition exam on this organ. A memorial plaque commemorates the event and was donated in 1961 by the Josefstädter district council and the Josefstädter Heimatmuseum. It has the following inscription: On November 21, 1861, Anton Bruckner took the practical composer's examination on the organ of this church. Johann Herbeck, who later became the court conductor, summed up the event in memorable words: "He should have tested us".

Church music

The Piarist Church is known for its excellent acoustics and is accordingly popular with musicians.

Famous masses were premiered in the church, including:

on December 26, 1796 the Missa in tempore belli by Joseph Haydn .

on November 22, 1855, the Missa pro defunctis (Requiem in D minor) by Franz von Suppè

on November 12, 1963 Paul Hindemith's mass

Also connected with church music in Maria Treu were:

Václav Plachý (1785–1858), organist from 1811 to 1858
Robert Fuchs (1847–1927), organist from the late 1860s
Hans Rott (1858–1884), Austrian composer and organist
Carl Führich (1865–1959), choirmaster from 1891
Hans Gillesberger (1909–1986), choirmaster from 1935

Chapel of Sorrows

The Chapel of Sorrows

After the Piarists had settled in Vienna in 1697, the Chapel of Sorrows was built as part of the construction of the monastery. The foundation stone was laid on September 2, 1698 by Emperor Leopold I and the construction was carried out by master mason Simon Andreas Karafee (Carove) with his foreman Donatus d'Allio. It is located directly to the left of the monastery church, which was only built later.

literature

Technical guide through Vienna , 1910, p. OA
Joseph Ferdinand Kloss: The new organ in the parish church of the PP Piarists in the Josefstadt zu Maria-Treu ; Memorandum, Vienna 1858 ( online )