Votive Church, Gothic Revival church in Alsergrund, Austria
The Votivkirche is a neo-Gothic church with two openwork spires rising 99 metres from the front corners, each topped by a small golden finial. Between them a stepped gable frames a large rose window above a deeply recessed pointed-arch portal, flanked by two smaller pointed doorways. Twin buttresses divide the pale limestone facade, and slender traceried windows line the lower level.
After a failed assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian initiated the church construction as a sign of gratitude for his brother's rescue. Architect Heinrich von Ferstel won the 1854 competition with his design and directed construction until consecration in 1879. Severe damage from bombing raids in April 1945 led to extensive restoration work in the postwar decades.
The church serves multiple Christian communities as a gathering place with services held in German, Italian, Spanish, French, English and Polish every Sunday. This linguistic diversity reflects the international composition of Vienna's Catholics and makes the building a central meeting point for believers of different backgrounds in the Austrian capital.
The building houses a museum with historical artworks, including the Antwerp Altar from the 15th century, which can only be visited by prior appointment. Tram lines 1, 37, 38, 40, 41 and 42 as well as subway line U2 with Schottentor station provide convenient access to the location, which sits just a few minutes' walk from the main building of the University of Vienna.
The church holds a stained-glass window showing a scene from the Mauthausen concentration camp; the prisoner with the raised blessing hand is chaplain Heinrich Maier, beheaded at the Vienna Regional Court on the last execution day before Austria's liberation. The high altar, designed and partly made by sculptor Joseph Gasser, combines a ciborium of two intersecting gable roofs with a 1.8-metre figure of Christ surrounded by four angels holding the instruments of the Passion.
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