Tourist attractions in Vienna : Votivkirche

The Votive Church is considered one of the most important neo-Gothic religious buildings in the world. It is located on the Ringstraße next to the main building of the University of Vienna. The emergence of the Votivkirche is linked to a failed assassination attempt on the young Emperor Franz Joseph on 18 February 1853. The Emperor was stabbed from behind with a long knife by a twenty-one-year-old Hungarian nationalist. The blow was deflected by the heavy golden covering embroidered on the Emperor's stiff collar.

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After the unsuccessful assassination attempt, the Emperor's brother, Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, later Emperor of Mexico,  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 to be a votive offering for the rescue of Franz Joseph and a monument of patriotism and of devotion of the people to the Imperial House.

Photo by Bernhard Jank

Photo by Elena Romera

The church plans were established in an architectural competition in April 1854. 75 projects from the Austrian Empire, German lands, England, and France were submitted. The jury choose the project of Heinrich von Ferstel (1828–1883), who, at the time, was only 26. He chose to build the cathedral in the neo-Gothic style, borrowing heavily from the architecture of Gothic French cathedrals. Construction began in 1856, and it was dedicated twenty-six years later in 1879, on the silver anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Empress Elisabeth.

Photo by leoglenn_g

Photo by leoglenn_g

Photo by Siliconearth

The church was one of the first buildings to be built on the Ringstraße; not located directly on the boulevard but along a broad square (the Sigmund Freud Park) in front of it. 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 color and erode the soft stone. The church has undergone extensive renovations after being badly damaged during World War II.

Photo by Morgennebel

Photo by Intensivtäteraggressor

The interior consists of a nave and two aisles, crossed by a transept. The choir is surrounded by an ambulatory with apsidioles and a Lady chapel. The Emperor window depicted the deliverance of the Emperor, but this original theme was lost when the windows were destroyed during World War II. The replacement window was restored by the City of Vienna in 1964, but took on a less monarchical and more religious tone. 

Photo by waxorian

Photo by Intensivtäteraggressor

Photo by Intensivtäteraggressor

Photo by eNikodemus

This impressive altar catches the eye with its gilded retable and a superimposed ciborium (or baldacchino). The artist Joseph Glasser drew his inspiration for the ciborium from examples in the Italian Gothic. The marble altar is decorated with panels with glass mosaic inlays work and is supported by six alabaster columns. The hexagonal Neo-Gothic pulpit stands on six marble pillars. The front panels show us in the middle a preaching Christ, flanked on both sides by the Church Fathers. Just as the sculptor of the Stephansdom has been portrayed under the pulpit of that church, the architect of the Votivkirche, Heinrich Ferstel, has been portrayed under this pulpit by Viktor Tilgner.

Photo by Julian Schroeder

Photo by Dmitry Shakin

Photo by Corvair Owner

The baldachin is supported by four massive red granite columns. It opens up into four pointed arches, crowned with gables and flanked by pinnacles with statues of saints in their niches. The cross vault is painted with allegorical representations of the four cardinal virtues, while the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, is portrayed on the boss. The four side chapels in the transept are as high and wide as the aisles : the Rosary chapel, the Chapel of the Cross, the Bishops’ chapel and the baptistry. Each of these four transept chapels display on their wall pillars four statues of saints. The Renaissance sarcophagus of Nicholas, Graf von Salm (defender of Vienna during the Turkish siege in 1529) stands in the baptistry. It was set up as a token of gratitude by emperor Ferdinand I.


Text Source: wikipedia.org