Gatterhoelzl-Kirche, Catholic church in Meidling, Austria
Gatterhölzl is the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Klemens Maria Hofbauer at Hohenbergstraße 42 in Vienna-Meidling, built from 1955 to 1959 to plans by Ladislaus Hruska. The round concrete-and-brick building recalls an Orthodox church, crowned by a dome and flanked by two small bell towers. Inside, a green Bozen marble altar stands at the centre, and the dome vault shows the Holy Trinity with 120 saints.
The church was built between 1955 and 1959 following architect Ladislaus Hruska's design plans. It replaced an emergency chapel from World War I that had served a nearby military hospital.
The name Gatterhölzl derives from the Middle High German "chatte", the term for a smallholder's house without its own land. In the Middle Ages a dense forest with a "chattermühle" mill stood here, and the field name stuck. The mill vanished around 1570 when Katterburg, predecessor of Schloss Schönbrunn, was built nearby.
The church stands at Hohenbergstraße 42 on the flat crest of the Grüner Berg, right at the Meidling–Hietzing district line and close to the Schönbrunn grounds. The Moldauer Kreuz chapel and the Cantacuzino bust are a short walk away in the Am Tivoli housing estate. The 1955–1959 building was erected over a filled-in fire pond, which later caused structural problems.
The dome vault depicts the Holy Trinity with 120 saints, and the walls hold a large crucifix and carved Stations of the Cross by Josef Papst. Below the church, the Unterkirche contains a burial vault of the Capuchin order.
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