Votive Church (Vienna)
The Vienna Votive Church , a Roman Catholic church next to the Ringstrasse in the Alsergrund district in the immediate vicinity of the main building of the University of Vienna , is one of the most important neo-Gothic sacred buildings in the world. The creation of the Ringstrasse dome, built by the architect Heinrich Ferstel , goes back to the assassination attempt on the young Emperor Franz Joseph I on February 18, 1853 by the tailor János Libényi . With a height of 99 meters, the Votive Church is the second highest church in Vienna .
history
prehistory
Franz Joseph's brother, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian , who later became Emperor of Mexico , appealed for donations after the assassination attempt “in gratitude for His Majesty's salvation” in order to build a new church in Vienna. The church was to be built as a votive gift (thanksgiving gift) from the peoples of the monarchy for the salvation of Franz Joseph. 300,000 citizens responded to the appeal for donations. All nations of the Danube Monarchy should find their spiritual and political home in the new cathedral.
The construction of the church was tendered in an architectural competition in April 1854, 75 projects by architects from the Danube Monarchy, Germany, England and France were submitted. The jury decided on the project by the then 26-year-old architect Heinrich Ferstel . Originally, a building site near the Belvedere Palace was planned for the church . However, this idea was abandoned due to the remoteness. Finally, a plot of land in the area of the demolished glacis in Alservorstadt was chosen as the building site . The foundation stone was laid on April 24, 1856 by Emperor Franz Joseph and Cardinal Rauscher in the presence of 80 archbishops and bishops . A limestone was taken from the valley of Josaphat ( Mount of Olives ) in Jerusalem .
Building history
The Prague site manager and master stonemason, Joseph Kranner, judged the possible types of stone: The limestone from Wöllersdorf in the quarries of the Jäger and Moosbrugger families is particularly beautiful and hard . As the "head foreman" of the votive church building with the supervision of the foremen and the entire workforce, he set up a building hut for 200 (!) Stonemasons, a modeling room, the office with the drawing floor above , a forge, etc. After his death in 1871, Hermann Riewel took over this task.
The church finally took over 20 years to complete. First of all, the foundations of the choir were laid and the choir was erected, which in 1857 reached up to the height of the absidal chapels and was raised to the height of the aisles together with the transept until 1859. In 1860 the foundations of the towers were created and the long structure was brought up to the height of the aisles. In 1861 the entire church finally reached the height of the aisles. From 1862 to 1863 the towers and the nave were raised to the height of the main nave, in 1864 the transept was started and the towers raised to the central gable. Ferstel invested particular energy in the construction of the towers, as the towers in large churches were often left unfinished. With a subsidy of 150,000 guilders from the Vienna City Council, he was finally able to complete the towers in the tenth year of construction and on August 18, 1868, he reached a height of 99 m. In 1872 the nave was finally vaulted and a year later the iron roof trusses were added. Interior decoration and construction work continued for another six years. After 23 years of construction, the church was finally consecrated on April 24, 1879, on the occasion of the silver wedding anniversary of the imperial couple. The square in front of the Votive Church was Maximilianplatz.
Between 1862 and 1918, the Votive Church was the Catholic garrison church of Vienna by order of Emperor Franz Joseph I.
The Vienna Votive Church is an essential model for the Speyer Memorial Church .
Building description
Layout
The Votive Church is a three-aisled basilica with an ambulatory and a chapel wreath ; the choir is in the west. The main nave is nine bays long, the transept has a length of seven bays. The point at which the nave and transept intersect forms the crossing . Instead of the crossing tower there is a simple roof turret . The main east facade is defined by two colossal towers. Besides the crossing, which is emphasized by a star vault , the Votive Church is characterized by a cross vault . The gable roof of the nave and the transept is crowned by a ridge ornament. The aisles are half the width and almost half the height of the central nave. They are separated from the nave by bundle pillars in an arcade position . The side aisles are extended by individual chapels, drawn in pillars separate them from each other. This structure suggests a rudimentary five-nautical structure. The chapels that flank the transept protrude up to the height of the vestibules, so that the impression of a three-aisled transept is created. In addition, they smooth the transition from the transept to the choir. There is only 1 yoke between the choir and the transept, so that the head of the choir sits almost directly on the transept. This creates a centralizing impression.
The Votive Church - Correspondences as a Concept
An important moment of the Votive Church is the all-round opening and mutual correspondence of the building. The vertical division of the outer facades corresponds to the design of the interior and develops from this. The triforium zone in the nave is left out, the gallery is added in the choir . This results in a vertical tripartite division of the choir interior: chapel wreath, windowless gallery and arcades of light .
The vertical division of the choir dictates the entire outer facade division of the church. Each height of these three parts has a counterpart on the other facades, these connections are made by cornices and parapets . The bottom zone of the choir closes off with the cornice of the chapel wreath. This element of division continues in the parapets over the transept vestibules, in water hammer over the chapels of the aisle and finally forms the cornice under the sculpture gallery on the east facade. The height and position of the choir loft corresponds exactly to the statue gallery on the main facade. The upper end of this gallery runs in the form of a tracery balustrade along the nave and is the crowning of the aisles. The end of the choir is continued with the tracery balustrade crowning the nave and thus forms the third ring.
The rudimentary five-aisle structure is also continued to the outside and made visible in that the drawn-in buttresses , which form the chapels, run out not in one, but in two branches.
A second important moment is the collision and crossing of horizontal and vertical tendencies. The balustrade belts and the cornices are repeatedly pierced by eyelashes with tracery. When a cornice is threaded through this eyelash , further penetration takes place.
Building material
The hard sandstone from which the church is mainly made comes from the quarries near Wöllersdorf and Brunn am Steinfeld .
Equipment and furnishings
window
Originally there were 78 painted glass windows with mostly figurative representations. The designs for this come from, among others, Joseph von Führich , Edward von Steinle , Ferdinand Laufberger and other important Austrian painters. The majority of the painted glass windows were made by the Geyling glass painting company in Vienna and the Neuhauser glass painting company in Innsbruck. A total of 225,000 guilders was spent on the stained glass , with nobles and clergy mostly donating the individual stained glass windows.
During the Second World War, the glass windows of the Votive Church were destroyed and then temporarily glazed. During the church restoration from 1960 to 1973, most of the glass windows were redesigned, because apart from the large rose on the main facade and the Kaiser window by Eduard von Steinle on the right front side of the transept, the original drawings were missing, so that they are not in their original form more could be reconstructed. In the course of this redesign, a glass window with the theme of resistance and Franz Jägerstätter was installed in 1972/73 , which was financed from part of the estate of the chamber singer Mária Németh . This was the first sacred work of art that took up the martyrdom of the Upper Austrian conscientious objector . It is located in the Kreuzkapelle, also known as the weekday and formerly the Imperial Chapel.
There is also a window in the Votive Church with a scene from the Mauthausen concentration camp. The prisoner with the blessing hand is the chaplain Heinrich Maier , who was beheaded in the Vienna regional court on the last day of execution before the liberation of Austria.
Altars and chapels
At the four intersections of the nave and the transept there are four chapels, the bishop's chapel, the rosary chapel, the cross and the baptistery. There are further altars or chapels on the left and right side of the nave and the Marien Altar in the middle of the ambulatory.
High altar
The high altar is a combination of a ciboric and an altar retable . It was designed and partially manufactured by the sculptor Joseph Gasser . The ciborium has the shape of two intersecting gable roofs with a pinnacle crowning above the intersection. In the center of the pinnacle is a figure of the Savior , around 1.8 meters high , surrounded by four angel figures resting on small columns with the tools of the Passion. In the corner pinnacles of the ciborium, which is supported by four round columns made of red Saxon granite, there are four smaller figures of saints: on the left, the church patron, Karl Borromeo , and the patron saint of the founder, Maximilian von Celeia ; right, Hilarius von Poitiers and Bernhard von Clairvaux .
The ciborium is painted both inside and outside on the gable surface. The front gable surface is a dedication by Pope Pius IX. and was made in Rome. the altar table is made of Lasa marble and is supported by six columns made of Egyptian alabaster. The approximately four-meter retabulum made of gilded bronze and with colored enamel pictures is placed on the altar table .
Originally, Andreas Halbig designed and manufactured the main altar for the Votive Church. However, this was refused by Ferstel because he would have prevented a view of the ambulatory. It was therefore installed in the Augustinian Church in Vienna in 1873 , where it is still located today.
Episcopal Chapel
The bishop's chapel, also known as the Sacred Heart Chapel, with the Sacred Heart Altar is located on the right-hand edge of the nave with the transept facing the gallery. The four windows are dedicated to Saint Ambrose of Milan (doctor of the church), Altmann von Passau (founder of the Göttweig Abbey ), Klemens Maria Hofbauer (city patron of Vienna) and Pope Pius II . The altar is made of Lasa marble . There are three medallions on the front of the altar table. The center shows the cross of the risen Christ with a wreath of rays, on the left a phoenix rising from the flames, and on the right a pelican who nourishes his boy with heart's blood. The symbols of the four evangelists and the sacrificial lamb Christ are depicted on the altarpiece . The altar is crowned with a Sacred Heart statue and four reliefs depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ .
Rosary Chapel
The rosary chapel on the right corner of the presbytery and transept was formerly known as the prince's chapel. A late Gothic Antwerp altar was erected in this chapel until 1986. The tumba of Count Niklas von Salm is currently installed in this chapel . This tomb was donated by Emperor Ferdinand I out of gratitude because Salm, as commander of the Austrian army, successfully defended Vienna against the Turks in 1529. The Tumba was set up in the Dorotheerkirche in 1548 . After the church was dissolved in the course of Josephinism , the Tumba was acquired by the Salm-Reifferscheidt family and brought to their castle in Raitz (today's Rájec nad Svitavou ). Since the Votive Church was supposed to be a hero church, the Viennese Antiquities Association arranged in 1878 that the Tumba was brought back to Vienna by negotiating a loan agreement with the Salm-Reifferscheidt family. A year later it was installed in the Votive Church, where it is still on loan today.
Kreuzkapelle
The Kreuzkapelle, formerly known as the Imperial Chapel, on the left corner of the presbytery and transept is named after the cross altar. The theme of the wall paintings is the veneration of the Eucharist . Of the two windows, the right is dedicated to conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter and the left to the Spaniard Johannes von Gott . The second named served with the Spanish auxiliary scorpion in the defense of Vienna against the Turks in 1529. Later he founded the Order of the Brothers of Mercy . The altar is mainly made of so-called Istrian limestone (grisignano stone) and Egyptian alabaster was used for the columns and the panels. The altar shows a crucifix between Saint Mary and the Apostle John .
Baptistery
The baptistery is in the left corner of the nave and transept. There is an octagonal font made of Egyptian marble (alabaster). The columns are adorned with the statues of the holy martyrs Catherine of Alexandria , Lawrence of Rome , Barbara of Nicomedia and Stephen . Originally, Count Niklas Salm's tumba was set up in this chapel.
Antwerp altar
The Votive Church has one of Antwerp's famous altars (reredos) , which is exhibited and can be visited in the former court oratory, which has been set up as a museum. This Flemish wood carving from the middle or second half of the 15th century with original polychromy depicts passion scenes.
Organs
There are three organs in the Votive Church . The large Walcker organ is located on the gallery above the main gate. There are also two choir organs : the new choir organ is in the front right aisle, and the old choir organ is in the chapel wreath.
Great organ
The organ was built in 1878 by the E. F. Walcker organ building company (Ludwigsburg). An electrical wind turbine was installed as early as 1915 . Between 1995 and 1996 the instrument was fundamentally restored by the Klais (Bonn) organ building company , with the organ and in particular the disposition remaining practically unchanged. The organ is the only work of this type and size that has largely been preserved in its original form and is therefore one of the most important monument organs in the world today .
The instrument has 61 registers (3762 pipes) on three manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical, the instrument has cone chests and a Barker machine in the first manual .
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- Coupling : III / I, II / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
Old choir organ
The old choir organ is located in the chapel wreath on the front right behind the choir grille and was made in 1904 by Franz Capek (1857–1938). Originally the organ had a two-manual pneumatic work. In 1949 there was a change to ten stops on a manual and pedal, slider drawer and mechanical action. The case represents a special value in terms of art history.
New choir organ
The new choir organ with 20 registers on slide chests, two manuals and a pedal with mechanical game and register action was made by the Viennese master organ builder Philipp Eppel (1907–1987) and inaugurated in 1970. The design of the simple case and the intonation comes from the master organ builder Herbert Gollini .
literature
- Kassal-Mikula, Renata / Erben, Tino: Heinrich von Ferstel (1828–1883). Buildings and projects for Vienna, Vienna 1983.
- Parish Council of the Votive Church: One Century Votive Church: 1879–1979. Vienna 1979.
- Pichler, Anton Maria: The Votive Church in Vienna "To the Divine Savior". Description of the history, meaning and works of art, Vienna no year.
- Seidl, Waltraud: The whole empire is a cathedral. The Votive Church in Vienna, diploma thesis, University of Salzburg 1996.
- Thausing, Moritz: The Votive Church in Vienna. Memorandum of the Baucomités published to celebrate the inauguration on April 24, 1879, Vienna 1879. (Digital copies: archive.org ; Austria-Forum )
- Wibiral, Norbert / Kassal-Mikula, Renata: Heinrich von Ferstel, Wiesbaden 1974.
- Wibiral, Norbert: Heinrich von Ferstel and historicism in 19th century architecture, Vienna 1952.
- Wolf, Alfred: Alsergrund. District of Poets and Thinkers. Vienna 1993
- Wolf, Alfred: Alsergrund Chronicle. From Roman times to the end of the monarchy. Vienna 1981
- Completion and consecration of the Votive Church in Vienna. In: Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1879, pp. 36–38 (online at ANNO ).
Web links
- Votive Church
- The Votive Church in Vienna. In: Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1886, p. 6 ff. (Online at ANNO ).
- Entry on Votive Church (Vienna) in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Individual evidence
- ^ Alois Kieslinger, The Vienna Ringstrasse. Vol. IV: The stones of the Vienna Ringstrasse . Votivkirche p. 167ff, p. 172 Steinerverlag, Wiesbaden 1972.
- ↑ May 10, 1859 Administrative Archives - City Expansion Fund StEF 142
- ↑ Kranner badly qualified other types of stone. These Alois Kieslinger , geologist of the Vienna University of Technology: completely incorrect. Note: There were massive interests behind all of the reports. Every quarry owner wanted to do business, of course.
- ↑ Alois Kieslinger, Votivkirche p. 167ff, Josef Kranner p. 171f.
- ^ Project on the Votive Church in Vienna , accessed on February 14, 2010.
- ↑ a b c d Karl von Lützow : The interior of the Votive Church in Vienna . In: Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst , fourteenth volume, Leipzig 1879, pp. 165ff
- ↑ a b Archdiocese of Vienna: Vienna Votive Church celebrates its 130th anniversary ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved December 22, 2012
- ↑ a b c d e Propsteipfarramt Votivkirche (Ed.): Votivkirche in Vienna (church leader); Kunstverlag Hofstetter, Ried im Innkreis 1990
- ↑ New Archive for the History of the Diocese of Linz; 12th year, issue 1, Linz 1998/99 ( online ( memento from December 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) as PDF; 516 kB)
- ↑ Wonderful review of the Imperial Oratorio Article by Johann Werfring in the “Wiener Zeitung” of November 29, 2012, supplement “ProgrammPunkte”, p. 7.
- ↑ a b c Votivkirche.at: The organs of the Votivkirche ; Retrieved December 15, 2012
Remarks
- ↑ Both the church leader and the Votive Church website cite a Josef Capek, but this is unknown in the professional world. The historical district leader of Alsergrund states Franz Capek.
Evangelical Chapel AB: Messiaskapelle (Seegasse)
Roman Catholic Churches and chapels: Canisius Church (Lustkandlgasse) | Schubert Church (Lichtental) | Seminary church Santa Maria de Mercede (Boltzmanngasse) | Servitenkirche (Roßau) | St. Johannes Nepomuk Chapel (Währinger Gürtel) | Votive Church (Rooseveltplatz)
Synagogue: Synagogue in the old AKH
Disused sacred buildings: Schwarzspanierkirche (Schwarzspanierstraße) | Association synagogue in Müllnergasse
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 55.5 ″ N , 16 ° 21 ′ 31.1 ″ E