Minoritenkirche (Vienna)

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Southeast view of the Minorite Church
Plaque "Vienna introduces itself" on the west facade of the former Minorite Church in Vienna

The Vienna Minorite Church (also: Italian National Church Maria Schnee ) is a Roman Catholic hall church on Minoritenplatz in Vienna's 1st  district of Inner City and home to the Italian-speaking community of Vienna.

history

Representation of the Minorite Church with preserved tower and long choir. The monastery was in the south of the church. (History of the City of Vienna, 1872)
Gable roof and bell tower (65 m) of the Minorite Church

The Minorites or Friars Minor (fratres minores), the tribe from which the Franciscan religious family grew up, were founded in 1224 by Duke Leopold VI. called to Austria and founded the Vienna Minorite Monastery . After the town fire in 1275, King Ottokar Přemysl laid the foundation stone for the new church of the Minorite monastery. It was one of the first Gothic churches in Eastern Austria and probably consisted of a two-aisled nave with an attached long choir. After Ottokar's death in the Battle of Marchfeld , he was laid out here for thirty weeks.

There were significant changes under the first Habsburg rulers in Austria. Blanche of France (1282–1305), the wife of Duke Rudolf III. of Austria , had a chapel for her grandfather, Saint Louis of France , added to the north side of the nave , which was completed in 1328. It had a separate entrance and was not connected to the nave. This was changed from around 1340, when the Ludwig Chapel was combined with the two-aisled nave, which was now a three-aisled church with two choirs . New bundle pillars were installed in the nave and an additional yoke and a new portal were added to the west. The whole construction follows the scheme of French cathedral architecture. The builders are unknown, but it is believed that Jacobus Parisiensis, the confessor of Duke Albrecht II, played a leading role.

Portal of the west facade

The portal also follows a French scheme, which is rather rare in Austria. The tympanum is divided into three fields by circular strokes, with Christ on a cross in the middle . On the left you can see Mary with Mary Magdalene and other female figures, on the right John the Evangelist, the Captain Longinus and other male figures. The outermost male and female figures could represent Duke Albrecht II and his wife Johanna von Pfirt , especially since the male figure appears to be wearing a ducal hat. The figures are represented very elegantly and delicately - probably a French influence and at the same time an important stylistic feature of the Minorite workshop , which can be traced back to around 1360.

View of the high altar of the Minorite Church, summer 2005

Overall, the church, located close to the Vienna Hofburg, represents a courtly style rather than the typical architecture of the mendicant order, which is also expressed in the fact that it has a tower.

In the centuries that followed, the church remained largely unchanged, except that the tower was repeatedly damaged in various wars and sieges: During the first Turkish siege in 1529, the top was destroyed for the first time, but was rebuilt around 1633. The spire fell victim again to the second Turkish siege in 1683. The destroyed helmet roof was replaced by a flat roof.

A decisive turning point came in 1782 when the Minorites were relocated to the former church of the White Spaniards, the Alserkirche , as part of Joseph II's religious policy . The following year on June 3, 1784, at the instigation of the monarch, the Minorite Church became the property of the Italian Congregation Maria Schnee and thus declared the Italian national church. In the course of this she was consecrated, referring to the miraculous image venerated in Santa Maria Maggiore, Maria Schnee ( Madonna della Neve ) - this patronage still exists today.

The Italian Congregation is a Catholic lay congregation and was founded in Vienna in 1625 as a Marian congregation of Italians. From 1774 to 1784 she was the owner of the former Katharinenkapelle ( the former church of the Vienna Imperial Hospital ) located near the Minoritenkirche , which was clearly too small for a visit to the approximately 7,000 people in the Italian community of Vienna. This deficiency was remedied by the move of the Italian community to the former Minorite Church.

In the course of the evacuation of the Minorites, they brought the cross with the image of Christ above the high altar of the former Vienna Minorite Church to Wimpassing , so that when it came back to Vienna later it was called the Wimpassinger Kreuz . A copy of it hangs in St. Stephen's Cathedral today ; the original was destroyed there in the course of the fire in 1945. In the course of the rededication of the former Minorite Church, numerous alterations were made by Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg , which primarily aimed at removing baroque ingredients inside. Nevertheless, in the end it was not “regotisation”, as it was often called, as parts of the Gothic church building were also removed - namely the long choir.

The mosaic copy of the Last Supper (detail)

At the beginning of the 19th century, a mosaic copy of Leonardo da Vinci 's Last Supper also came to the church. She was of Napoleon commissioned from Giacomo Raffaelli in order, but was stopped as some other works of art only after his fall and was designed by his father- I Emperor Franz bought. It turned out to be too big for its originally intended location in the Belvedere , so that it ultimately came to this church.

In the decade after 1900 the last changes took place, in particular the addition of the choir-like sacristy house in the east (instead of the long choir) and the arcade in the south of the church. In 1902 Louis von Giacomelli was appointed to the building commission of the Italian congregation "Madonna della Neve" (Maria Schnee), from 1903–1909, after the death of Victor Lutz, he led the restoration, conversion and construction of the annexes to the former Minorite Church that belonged to him owes its present shape.

In the course of the underground construction in the late 1980s, the foundation walls of the long choir were found, which are now traced on the square.

From 1784 onwards, the parish of the Italian National Church was partly cared for by diocesan priests and partly by religious priests, such as the Redemptorists, the Oblates of St. Joseph and the Salesians. From 1957 to 2019 the Fathers of the Minorite Order were in charge of pastoral care. At the instigation of the Archdiocese of Vienna , part of the Italian religious community was relocated to the parish church of Alser Vorstadt after the owner of the Minorite Church terminated the Order of the Minorites in December 2018 on June 30, 2019, the other part remained in the Italian National Church. The Holy Masses in Italian in the Minoritenkirche in Vienna will continue to take place as usual on Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. and Sundays at 11:00 a.m.

organ

The historic organ of the Minorite Church

The organ with 20  registers and two manuals behind a Gothic prospect is one of the most important historical organs in Vienna. It was built by Franz Xaver Christoph in 1786 according to plans by Johann Milani and Ferdinand Hetzendorf using the pipes , wind chests and the console case of a previous organ built in 1673 . It has largely been preserved in the original and was partially restored by Arnulf Klebel in 1972 . Currently (2013) it is in need of restoration and almost unplayable.

I Manual CDEFGA – c 3
Principal 8th'
Quintatön 8th'
Forest flute 8th'
Octav 4 ′
Night horn 4 ′
Quint 3 ′
Super octave 2 ′
Cymbel II
Mixture IV
II positive CDEFGA-c 3
Copula 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Whistle 4 ′
Octav 2 ′
Quint 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
CDEFGA – a 0 pedal
Violon bass 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Octavbass 8th'
Quintbass 6 ′
Cornett III

Tombs

Pietro Metastasio, tomb

In the Minoritenkirche there is a tomb of the librettist Pietro Metastasio , who was buried in the Michaelerkirche . Similarly, Margaret of Tyrol buried here. In the area of ​​today's Antonius Chapel ( the former Ludwig Chapel ) is the inaccessible crypt of the Hoyos family, where, among other things, the copper coffin with the remains of the mystic Christina Rieglerin is located. Under the arcades on the south side of the church there are remains of tombstones that tell of the personalities originally buried in the vicinity of the Minorite monastery.

Access

The Minoritenkirche is on the Minoritenplatz in the 1st district in Vienna. The Herrengasse underground station (U3) has an exit to Minoritenplatz, right next to the church.

Exhibitions

Experimental setup for the Last Supper 2006

In 2006 the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci, Man - Artist - Genius took place in the Minorite Church . The curator of the exhibition was David Sayn, producer Christoph Rahofer.

All known paintings by Leonardo da Vinci were shown in their original size. The digital processing partially made the original colors visible. For the perspective of the Lord's Supper there was an experimental set-up that proves that the perspective of the Lord's Supper is a central perspective in which the eye point is at the level of the temple of the Christ figure. To prove this, a staircase was installed that allowed the viewer to take this point of view. The exact distance of the viewer was calculated by David Sayn using a computer model. The center of the picture, determined by Leonardo da Vinci, is the temple of the Christ figure and at the same time the point where all (perspective) rays meet. Leonardo identified the rays using a nail and taut cords.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Minorite Church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Minorite Church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Minorite Church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Minorite Church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: The west facade and the main portal of the church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Minorite Church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Minorite Church, chapter 8. Italian Congregation Maria Schnee, accessed on April 30, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: History of the Italian Congregation. Retrieved April 30, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: The Wimpassinger Cross. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 19, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: Cenacolo mosaic in the Minorite Church. Retrieved April 30, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: Lecture at the opening of the exhibition 230 years of the Italian Minorite Church under the sign of the Italian Congregation. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed April 30, 2019 .
  12. ^ Archdiocese of Vienna: Relocation of the Italian community. Accessed June 2, 2019 (German).
  13. ^ Italian Congregation: Note to the faithful of the Italian community of the Minorite Church. Retrieved April 30, 2019 .
  14. ^ Greetings from the Italian Catholic Pastoral Care Archdiocese of Vienna. Retrieved July 7, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Blog QuiVienna: Un comunicato dalla Congregazione Italiana sui cambiamenti nella comunità cattolica di Vienna. Retrieved April 30, 2019 (Italian).
  16. ^ Acta Organologica. Vol. 29, 2006, pp. 159–178: The organ of the Vienna Minorite Church "Maria Schnee" ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gdo.de
  17. ^ Austrian organ database Karl Schütz: Minoritenkirche ; Retrieved January 25, 2014
  18. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: "Women under the spell of the Minorite Church", contribution to the Long Night of Churches 2016. Italian Congregation Maria Schnee, accessed on June 19, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Dr. Manfred Zips: The south side of the Vienna Minorite Church. Italian Congregation for Mary of the Snow, accessed June 19, 2019 .
  20. ↑ David Sayn, Christoph Rahofer: Leonardo da Vinci, Human - Artist - Genius (Experimental setup in the Vienna Minorite Church 2006)

literature

Web links

Commons : Wiener Minoritenkirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 35 ″  N , 16 ° 21 ′ 50 ″  E