Evangelical Reformed Church in Vienna

The Reformed City Church is a church edifice of the Evangelical Church of the Helvetic Confession in Austria, located on Dorotheergasse 16 in Vienna’s 1st district.

The church, which is located on the corner of a block of homes created by narrow streets in the old town, was erected as a tolerance prayer place for the Viennese Reformed parish, which was founded in 1782 as a result of the Tolerance Patent.Gottlieb Nigelli designed the neoclassical architectural complex erected on the grounds of an abandoned convent from 1783 to 1784.The Reformed City Church gained a neo-baroque single-tower façade during a renovation was out in 1887 according to drawings by Ignaz Sowinski.The inside of the church is devoid of images, according to the Reformed interpretation of the Second Commandment.

In Austria, the Reformed City Church serves as the seat of the Evangelical parish HB Inner City and the Evangelical Church HB.Furthermore, the church is a cultural venue and contains various foreign-language worship congregations that are legally constituted differently.

Dorotheergasse 16, in the area between Graben and Hofburg, houses the Reformed City Church.It is made up of the main church and the rectory to the south, which are linked by two side wings and enclose a trapezoidal inner courtyard.The Fries’schen apartment complexes to the west and the Lutheran town church to the south border the building complex.The main entrance to the church and the vicarage are on Dorotheergasse, while the northern facade of the church space is on Stallburggasse.The Plankengasse runs between the church tower and the Donnerbrunnen on the Neuer Markt.

Exterior

The Reformed City Church’s two-zone main facade is neo-baroque in style.The major zone is dominated by massive Ionic pilasters.A metal gate serves as the primary gateway in the center.The windows have neo-baroque frames.A broken triangle gable is linked to the center avant-corps above the portal axis, which is overwritten by a segment gable.The church tower is reached through a vase balustrade with Tuscan corner pillars.The tower stands 42 meters tall.It’s bricked all the way up to 30 meters.At the top is a crooked gable with a copper-covered high lantern helmet.

The courtyard side façade is original early neoclassical, but the Stallburggasse side facade was designed in the manner of the former during the 1887 reconstruction.Both come with two huge thermal bath windows.The front facing Stallburggasse is made up of wall screens.There is a little metal door here, comparable to the main gate of 1887 but not identical to the Henriettentor, which was erected in 1815 and no longer exists.The two early classicist former major entrances are framed by Tuscan half-columns and a straight entablature on the outer wall facing the inner courtyard. Above the old main doors is a circular memorial plaque dedicated to Emperor Joseph II.Its Latin text may be traced back to a draft by Göttingen scholar Christian Gottlob Heyne.

Interior

The Reformed City Church is regarded as Vienna’s most notable neoclassical holy space.The fundamental structural construction is a two-bay pillar church with two flat pendentive domes and a roof truss above.Since the reconstruction in 1887, the original semicircular apse has been cut through by the inner main gateway, which has a triangular gable.The organ gallery is seen above.The organ gallery is housed in side galleries on both long sides, each with two barrel vaults and thermal bath windows on either side of the wall pillars.The galleries, which have balustrades, are supported by 10 Tuscan columns. The ground floor and gallery levels are perforated by passages that are adorned with Tuscan pilasters.The thin side with the pulpit is fashioned in the style of a triumphal arch.It has a basket arch, a segmental arch – aedicule with the pulpit, and layered Tuscan pilasters.The main chamber is preceded by a long hallway leading to Stallburggasse, from which a spiral staircase rises to the galleries.Between the inner and outer major portals of Dorotheergasse, there is an anteroom.There are secondary entrances to the main area on both sides of the inner main entryway.Following the 1887 remodeling, it was initially envisioned that these two side gates would provide admission to the church divided by gender, with the inner main gateway only being accessible on major festivals, blessings, and funerals.Two more side gates, the previous major entrances, connect the church interior to the inner courtyard directly.

The interior decor is devoid of images and crosses.This accords to the Reformed tradition’s rigorous view of the Second Commandment.In the form of rosettes and acanthus staffs, the grisaille paintings resemble stucco. The artistic design of the domes à l’antica, which is identical to the Parisian Pantheon, demonstrates Nigelli’s influence of French classicism, since he had studied in Paris. Three wall sayings with gold-colored lettering provided by the Wittgenstein family in 1889 are Bible quotes: Your kingdom come is written over the pulpit and on the underside of the side galleries.Alleluia to the Lord for all that breathes!Ps. 150.6 and Blessed are those who hear and keep God’s Word.Luc. 11.28. There are four memorial plaques placed to the walls near the pulpit and communion table.The earliest inscription, dating from 1822, is dedicated to Pastor Carl Wilhelm Hilchenbach and begins, “To the active promoter of this building, the pious guide of our souls, the teacher of our youth, the father of our poor.”Another plaque honors the 1887 reconstruction and the persons who were engaged, notably architect Ignaz Sowinski.A marble plaque from 1925 honours parishioners who died in World War I and includes a peace message.Josef Bohatec, a theology professor, wrote your text.The most recent plaque was installed in 2005. It mentions Zsigmond Varga, Ernst, and Gisela Pollack on behalf of Church members who were killed in Nazi concentration camps.Zsigmond Varga (1945, Gusen detention camp) was a Reformed Hungarian preacher in Vienna. Ernst and Gisela Pollack (1942 in Theresienstadt detention camp) were community philanthropists.

Vienna, Austria