Capuchin Church of St. James

The Capuchin Church of St. James is a Roman Catholic High Gothic Minorite church and afterwards a baroque Capuchin monastery church located at Bahngasse 23 in Wiener Neustadt. An early baroque Capuchin monastery with a monastic garden adjoins the cathedral.

A Franciscan monastery (fratres minores, Friars Minor or Minorites) was founded behind the city walls in the southwest corner of Wiener Neustadt before 1250.In 1267, the Minorite Church is referenced in a letter demanding an indulgence for church visits.The current long choir was constructed in 1330.During the Reformation, the monastery was destroyed.The ruins were handed over to the Capuchins in 1623, who began rebuilding the monastery.The church’s north tower was partially destroyed in the 1625 town fire.In 1628 and 1629, altars were consecrated.

Parts of the Friars Minor’s medieval structure were reinforced with components from around 1330. To the west, a roof turret was built.Around 1483, a late Gothic north tower was constructed.

From 1623 to 1628, the lengthy choir was remodeled into an early baroque hall area and reoriented to the west with a straight closed chancel.The Gothic ruins were partially walled off and partially severed at the summit.Halfway up the previous Gothic interior, a barrel vault with lunettes was installed.The Gothic architecture with vault services, shield ribs, rib attachments, and walled tracery windows has been preserved above the baroque barrel vault, however the Gothic vault is lost.

A three-arched ribbed vaulted seating niche with heads on flower keystones and blind tracery on the back wall may be found on the south side of the previous Gothic chancel.The Capuchins erected an unadorned hexagonal vestibule to the east in the 17th century.Only a few elements of the Gothic wall painting have survived.

A crucifixion group from the 18th century is shown on the upper altar wall.A former altarpiece of St. Francis may be found in a niche, and the altarpiece Felix von Cantalice with Christ Child and Mary, both by Anton Wagenschön, can be found in the south-side chapel.

The Konrad chapel’s mercy altar, dedicated in 1747, houses a reliquary glass tomb of St. Brother Konrad.Above it, from around 1330, are Gothic statues of Mary with child and James the Elder by the Wiener Neustadt master of the Minorites. A votive painting of St. Florian with a view of the burning town of Wiener Neustadt by painter GA Waßhuber, depicting the town fire of 1699, may be found in the Konrad chapel.

An altarpiece of the Trinity by Father and painter Dariusz Kochanski from the year 2000 can be found in the approximately square vaulted Trinity Chapel. Above the Trinity Chapel is a square room with a late Gothic ribbed ceiling from the 15th century, previously a nave vault of the Minorite Church, and a stairway, doors, and shelves to the monastery library, built in the 17th century.

There is a 17th century Baroque baptismal font with shell font and baluster.The organ was built in 1905.

The Passion is a nine-axis arcade with vaulted ceilings between belt arches that extends along Bahngasse to the east of the church.The accompanying statues and groups of statues from the Passion of Christ, erected circa 1700, such as carrying the cross, Ecce homo, Mount of Olives, farewell to Mary, Christ on the torture column, crowning with thorns, are now deposited.