Waisenhauskirche, Vienna, Parish church in Landstraße district, Vienna, Austria

The Waisenhauskirche, or Pfarrkirche Mariä Geburt, stands at Rennweg 91 with a two-storey gable facade between low wings; its frieze reads "In haC saCra DoMo orphanI pIa Vota persoLVVnt", a chronogram giving 1768. The hall interior, about 50 m long, 12 m wide and 15 m high, is white and gold, with late-Baroque and early-Classicist fittings completed in 1774.

A chapel dedicated to Saint Lazarus, linked to the Sankt Marx infirmary, stood on this site from 1267 and was destroyed twice during the Turkish sieges of 1529 and 1683. In 1762 Maria Theresa bought the Rennweg orphanage estate, and in 1768 the orphanage church Mariä Geburt was built to plans by Thaddäus Karner under master builder Leopold Grossmann. It was consecrated on 7 December 1768 by Cardinal Migazzi in the empress's presence, and in 1783 it became a parish church.

The popular name Waisenhauskirche recalls the orphanage on Rennweg that Empress Maria Theresa bought in 1762 and gave to the institution, placing it under the Jesuit Ignaz Parhamer, confessor of her husband Franz I Stephan. His skull is kept in a glass shrine in the church. The high altar carries the image of Maria, Zuflucht der Waisen (Mary, Refuge of Orphans).

The church is located at Rennweg 91 and is easily reached by tram 71 and several bus lines. Its position in the third district makes it simple to combine a visit with other cultural sites in the area.

A young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted the inaugural mass here in December 1768 and composed the so-called Waisenhausmesse for the occasion. This musical connection gives the church a special place in Vienna's musical heritage.