Hospital Church (Mödling)

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Hospital church in Mödling

The hospital church hl. Aegydius is a late Gothic Roman Catholic hall church in Mödling and was built from 1443 to 1453. The name comes from the fact that there was a hospital in the building to the west . The term hospital in the former sense means a home for the poor and old people.

Mödling thus had three churches: the Spitalkirche, the Martinskirche, which stood on the site of the present-day orphanage church, and the Gothic predecessor of the Othmarkirche. Only one year after the hospital church was completed, construction of today's Othmarkirche began. Mödling was evidently a very prosperous market at the time.

Originally the hospital church was consecrated to St. Catherine . Today their patron is St. Aegidius . He was born in Athens around 640, died around 720 and is considered one of the Fourteen First Aiders . His feast day is September 1st.

The roof structure of the hospital church dates back to 1685. From 1879 to 1882 the church was extensively re-gothicized. The rose window shows a picture of Mödling's mayor at the time, Josef Schöffel . The baroque altar was replaced in 1882 by a neo-Gothic carved altar from Val Gardena . The altar shows Mary as Queen in the middle. On her right stands St. Martin sharing his cloak, on her left St. Aegidius with the doe that, according to legend, nourished him. To the left and right are angels with banners: Gloria in excelsis Deo - et in terra pax hominibus. Christ, the ruler of the world, stands above all.

The vault was painted by the brothers Franz and Karl Jobst. The old and the sick were to find comfort in their ailments when they saw Jesus' instruments of suffering. For the message of the apostles and evangelists testifies that he whom the Virgin Mary gave birth is the Lamb who takes away all the guilt of the world. In the pelican, which tears its heart apart to feed its young, they could see a symbol of Jesus giving himself up for the life of the world.

The twelve apostles are depicted in the side vaults , labeled with their names. In the middle the four evangelists, also inscribed, with their symbols human ( Matthew ), lion ( Mark ), bull ( Luke ) and eagle ( John ). On the right, Maria as Queen of Heaven with child: salve regina . Left Jesus with a lamb: ecce agnus dei . The image of the Trinity above the altar completes the ceiling frescoes .

In the hospital church there are two epitaphs from around 1600. One plaque commemorates the councilor Franz Gueth, who died in 1583, a respected Mödling citizen. In 1578 he was elected market judge . The second plaque commemorates the Wagner Andre Reisner, who died after 1600, and his family. These are two of the few testimonies from the time when the inhabitants of Mödling were Protestant with a few exceptions.

On the southern outer wall is the tombstone of Pastor Stephan Vinndorfer, who died around 1500. The devil's head is known far beyond the borders of Mödling and is repeatedly sought and admired by tourists. It is located outside on the south side, below the roof edge.

The oldest bell in the town of Mödling is located in the church. It weighs 30 kilograms and dates from 1683, the year of the Turkish siege, and was cast by Joachim Gross , who owned a foundry in Mödling and also a workshop in Vienna. The wall of the bell with a diameter of about 40 cm shows St. Mary with the baby Jesus.

literature

  • DEHIO manual. The art monuments of Austria: Lower Austria south of the Danube. Part 2. M to Z. Mödling. Parish church hl. Aegydius. Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.), Verlag Berger, Horn / Wien 2003, ISBN 3-85028-365-8 , pages 1464f.

Web links

Commons : Spitalskirche (Mödling)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Franz's brother, Helreichen Guett, was Hofkammerrat Emperor Ferdinand I, see the annotated new edition by Oswald von Gschießler: Der Reichshofrat ..., Publications of the Commission for the Modern History of Former Austria, Volume 33. Vienna 1942, Kraus Reprint 1970 p. 104 PDF
  2. ↑ culture magazine medilihha 06/2011, district museum Mödling , p. 4

Coordinates: 48 ° 5 ′ 0 ″  N , 16 ° 16 ′ 55 ″  E