Serbisch-orthodoxe Kirche St. Sava, Landstraße, Serbian Orthodox church in Landstraße, Vienna, Austria
St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church is a church building located on Veithgasse in Vienna's Landstraße district, combining neoclassical, Byzantine, and Moorish architectural details in its structure. The building includes a school, concert hall, and residential apartments for clergy alongside the main worship space.
The parish was founded in 1860 after Emperor Franz Joseph I ruled in a language dispute that Serbian, not Greek, could not dominate services; the Serbs were promised their own church. About 1,500 Orthodox Serbs then lived in Vienna, some 500 permanently. Construction began only in 1890 for lack of funds, and the church was consecrated in 1893. Donors included Franz Joseph I and Serbian King Milan I.
The church is dedicated to Saint Sava (1175–1236), the first Serbian archbishop and a national figure of Serbia. Its parish belongs to the Eparchy of Austria-Switzerland, seated in Vienna since 2011, and the building also houses a school and a concert and conference hall used by the community.
The church occupies the ground floor of a multi-storey building at Veithgasse 3, so look for the neo-Byzantine facade rather than a free-standing church. Upper floors hold a school, a concert and conference hall and priests' flats, so parts of the building are not open to visitors.
On 16 October 1912 the church hosted the wedding of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia and Natalia Sheremetevskaya, a marriage the Russian imperial family did not recognise. The couple had eloped to Vienna, and the ceremony was held here because no Russian Orthodox priest in Russia would defy the tsar.
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