Church of Saint Salvator, Gothic chapel in Innere Stadt, Vienna, Austria.
The Church of Saint Salvator is a Gothic chapel in Vienna's Innere Stadt district, positioned directly beside the Old Town Hall. Its entrance features a Renaissance portal accessed from Salvatorgasse, with the interior displaying the characteristic pointed arches and vertical lines of Gothic design.
The chapel was founded by Otto II and his brother Haimo III of the Haimonen family and first mentioned in 1298. Because Otto joined the anti-Habsburg conspiracy of 1308, Duke Frederick the Fair confiscated palace and chapel in 1309 and handed them to the City of Vienna in 1316. The chapel was extended over a passage in 1360/1361 and enlarged into a second nave in 1373.
The name Salvator refers to Christ the Redeemer. Since 1871 the chapel has served the Old Catholic Church of Austria as its cathedral; the parish was founded on 15 October 1871 and recognised by the state in 1877. German replaced Latin in the liturgy from 1879, and in 1998 Bishop Bernhard Heitz ordained a woman priest here.
The entrance is the Renaissance portal on Salvatorgasse, not through the Old Town Hall itself. The chapel sits on the upper floor of the former city palace, reached by the passage added in 1360/1361. Old Catholic services are held on Sundays and public holidays at 10.00 and on Wednesdays and Fridays at 19.00, so time a visit around them.
The roof truss, with timbers dated to 1296–1299, is considered Vienna's oldest surviving roof structure. The chapel itself was first mentioned in 1298 as the private chapel of Otto II and Haimo III of the Haimonen family, on the upper floor of their city palace.
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