The Church of the Most Holy Trinity (Ge:Kirche Zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit) also known as the Wotruba Church , is a Roman Catholic Church, in Liesing, the 23rd District of Vienna. It is situated on the outskirts of the city on the 321 meters high mountain Georgenberg in Vienna-Mauer, which used to be the site of the former air force (Luftnachrichtentruppen) barracks during the Second World War. Mauer was previously an independent village, but today is a part of the district Liesing .
Its construction was initiated by Dr.Margarethe Ottillinger and built according to an idea of the internationally renowned artist Fritz Wotruba in collaboration with Fritz G. Mayr. The exceptionality of Wotruba’s plans aroused enormous resistance among local residents and delayed the construction for 10 years. Eventually the building process started in August 1974, and at the end of 1976 the church was consecrated to “the Most Holy Trinity” by the archbishop of Vienna.
Stylistically, the Wotruba church is described as “Brutalist architecture”, an architectural style of the mid-20th century characterized by massive or monolithic forms, usually of poured concrete and typically unrelieved by exterior decoration. Wotruba, who was actually a sculptor, explains the philosophy behind his odd plan: according to his own words, he wanted to "form something which shows that poverty doesn’t need to be ugly, that renunciation can occur within surroundings which are beautiful though extremely simple and nevertheless giving you a feeling of happiness".
The building consists of 152 asymmetrically arranged concrete blocks of a size between 0.84 m3 to 64 m3, weighing from 1.8 to 141 tons; the highest block measures 13.10m. The church is 30 m long, 22 m wide and 15.5 m high. The light passes through a simple glass panels which are inserted into the irregular spaces, and results in overlapping of the light beams. The church provides visitors with the unique opportunity to enter into an enlarged piece of abstract sculpture more often viewed in smaller size.
