Votive Church

Vienna, Austria

The Votive Church (Votivkirche) is a neo-Gothic church located on the Ringstraße in Vienna. Following the attempted assassination of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853, the Emperor's brother Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian inaugurated a campaign to create a church to thank God for saving the Emperor's life. Funds for construction were solicited from throughout the Empire. The church was dedicated in 1879.

The Votivkirche is made out of white sandstone, similar to the Stephansdom, and therefore has to be constantly renovated and protected from air-pollution and acid rain, which tends to colour and erode the soft stone. The church has undergone extensive renovations after being badly damaged during World War II.

This imposing church constitutes a harmonious whole through the proportions, arrangement, spaciousness and unity of style of all the elements. The impressive main altar catches the eye with its gilded retable and an elaborate ciborium over it.

References:

Comments

Your name

Website (optional)


Address

Rooseveltplatz K, Vienna, Austria
See all sites in Vienna

Details

Founded: 1879
Category: Religious sites in Austria

More Information

www.votivkirche.at
en.wikipedia.org
www.wien.info

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


St. Stephen's Cathedral (1,3 km)
Hofburg Palace (1 km)
Museumsquartier (1,4 km)
Kunsthistorisches Museum (1,3 km)
Augustinian Church (1,3 km)
Albertina (1,4 km)
St. Peter's Church (1 km)
Schönbrunn Palace (4,8 km)
Minoritenkirche (0,7 km)


Vienna Central Cemetery (9,3 km)
Klosterneuburg Abbey (10,4 km)
Schloss Esterházy (42,7 km)
Heiligenkreuz Abbey (24,6 km)
Perchtoldsdorf Castle (12,8 km)
Eisenstadt Cathedral (43 km)
Neugebäude Palace (8,8 km)
Blauer Hof (16,4 km)
Kreuzenstein Castle (18,6 km)

User Reviews

Djalma Alvernaz (13 months ago)
A very beautiful church. Worth it a visit! Go, ExpLLoring and Enjoy It!
Diego Costa Fernandes (13 months ago)
I love to visit this place sometimes. A calm place in a calm city
Flavy T (14 months ago)
An architectural masterpiece, it really worth the visit. It is quite big and it has wonderful strained-glass windows. It can be visited free of charge.
Christos Papadopoulos (14 months ago)
Was under construction (on the outside) on January and we couldn't see all its glory. Also you should note it is closed on Mondays.
Flaviu Rizeanu (2 years ago)
Beautiful church in the heart of Vienna, outstanding architecture! A piece of art! It looks great at night in colorful light.
Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

The Beauty of Cinque Terre
Photo from Flickr, copyright Frans.Sellies

Historic Site of the week

Kromeriz Castle and Gardens

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens and described as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).

It was not until 1664 that a bishop from the powerful Liechtenstein family charged architect Filiberto Lucchese with renovating the palace in a Baroque style. The chief monument of Lucchese's work in Kroměříž is the Pleasure Garden in front of the castle. Upon Lucchese's death in 1666, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla completed his work on the formal garden and had the palace rebuilt in a style reminiscent of the Turinese school to which he belonged.

After the castle was gutted by a major fire in March 1752, Bishop Hamilton commissioned two leading imperial artists, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Josef Stern, arrived at the residence in order to decorate the halls of the palace with their works. In addition to their paintings, the palace still houses an art collection, generally considered the second finest in the country, which includes Titian's last mythological painting, The Flaying of Marsyas. The largest part of the collection was acquired by Bishop Karel in Cologne in 1673. The palace also contains an outstanding musical archive and a library of 33,000 volumes.

UNESCO lists the palace and garden among the World Heritage Sites. As the nomination dossier explains, 'the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden'. Apart from the formal parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden, which sustained damage during floods in 1997.

Interiors of the palace were extensively used by Miloš Forman as a stand-in for Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace during filming of Amadeus (1984), based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who actually never visited Kroměříž. The main audience chamber was also used in the film Immortal Beloved (1994), in the piano concerto scene.

Map Top Sights Tags Historical Periods City Guides About Us Sign Up Upload new site
© 2020 SpottingHistory.com. All rights reserved.