Minoritenkirche

The Minoritenkirche (English: Friars Minor Conventual Church, related to the monastic Order of Friars Minor Conventual monks), formally known as Italienische Nationalkirche Maria Schnee (English: Italian National Church of Mary of the Snows, related to the Italian Congregation who owned this church), was built in the Altstadt or First District of Vienna, Austria, in French Gothic style.

The church’s location was donated to Francis of Assisi’s disciples in 1224. King Ottokar II of Bohemia placed the foundation stone in 1276. Duke Albrecht II later sponsored the construction work, particularly the main gateway. The Gothic Ludwig choir was constructed between 1316 and 1328 and afterwards used as a tomb in the 14th and 15th centuries. The church’s construction was finished in 1350.

Its belltower’s top was damaged during the first Austro-Turkish war, restored, and then destroyed again during the second Austro-Turkish war; the top was subsequently replaced with a flat roof.

When Joseph II presented the church to the Italians as a gift, they took the name Maria Schnee (“Mary of the Snows”) from a nearby chapel that was later demolished.

The Italian community was relocated to the Church of the Holy Trinity of the Friars Minor in Alservorstadt due to difficulties between the church’s owner (the Italian Congregation Mary of the Snows) and the Archdiocese of Vienna. After two years of uncertainty, the Italian Congregation transferred the Minoritenkirche to the Society of Saint Pius X in 2021, which continues to administer it now.

History

The church is located on the Minoritenplatz in Vienna’s Innere Stadt, northwest of the Hofburg. Franciscan friars (Latin: “fratres minores”) were the Minoriten. In 1224, they were assigned to Vienna.

Ottokar Pemysl lay the foundation stone for the new church after the city fire in 1275.It was one of the first Gothic churches in eastern Austria. Ottokar was laid out here for thirty weeks after his death in the fight on the Marchfeld.

A watershed moment occurred in 1782, when the Minorite church was closed as part of Joseph II’s ecclesiastical policies.The church was thereafter renamed the “Italian National Church of Mary of the Snow” (Santa Maria Maggiore), which is still in use today. The Franciscan friars had transported the cross with a portrait of Christ hanging above the high altar of their church in Wimpassing during the evacuation, so that when it returned to Vienna centuries later, it was known as the “Wimpassinger cross.” A replica of it now hangs in the Stephansdom cathedral.

Exterior

The entire structure is designed in the style of a French cathedral. The architects are unknown; nevertheless, it is often assigned to Jacobus Parisiensis, Fra Giacomo of Paris, Duke Albrecht II’s confessor. The doorway is designed in a French style, which is unusual for Austria.The tympanum is split into three fields by circular impacts, with Christ on a branch cross depicted in the central field. Mary, Mary Magdalene, and other feminine characters are on the left, and John the Evangelist, Saint Longinus the soldier, and other masculine figures are on the right. The outermost man and female figures might be Duke Albrecht II and his wife Johanna of Pfirt, given that the male figure appears to be wearing a Duke cap. The figures are exceedingly exquisite and finely linked: most likely a French influence, but also an essential stylistic feature of the Minoritenwerkstatt, which dates back to around 1360.

Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg made several improvements during the new dedication, with the goal of removing baroque on the inside in particular. Nonetheless, it was not included in the final “Regotisierung,” as it was more often known, because sections of the Church’s Gothic architecture style, particularly the lengthy choir, were removed.

The spire was demolished for the first time in 1529, but it was restored in 1633. It was destroyed once more during the second Turkish siege of 1683. A flat roof replaced the collapsed spire.

The church remained almost intact in the next centuries, with the exception of the tower, which was damaged multiple times during different battles. The latest substantial improvements occurred about 1900, including the creation of the choir-like sacristy. The foundation walls of the long choir were discovered during the construction of underground subways in the late 1980s.

Interior

The early Habsburgs brought about significant changes. Blanche of France, Duchess of Austria, wife of Rudolf III, left a chapel on the northern side of the cathedral after her grandpa, Louis IX of France (Heiliger Ludwig von Frankreich in German).It had its own entrance and was not connected to the nave. Around 1340, the Ludwig chapel was merged with the church’s two naves, forming a church hall with two choirs and three naves. As a result, additional columns were added to the church, and a new gateway was built in the west.

The Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua houses a Baroque altar built of polychrome marble and a 17th-century glass window.

The church’s walls are decorated with murals depicting the coats of arms of Austrian noble families that either contributed to the church’s construction or are buried here.

Ferdinand Hohenberg created the Neo-Gothic high altar. On the altarpiece is an image of the Virgin Mary by Ignaz Unterberger, identical to the one worshipped in Rome at Our Lady of the Snows. Saints Stephen of Hungary and John the Baptist flank it on the left, and Saints John the Evangelist and Leopold the Glorious flank it on the right.

On the church’s northern wall is a life-sized replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It is a mosaic by the Roman mosaic artist Giacomo Raffaelli, commissioned by Napoleon I in 1809 but incomplete at the time of his abdication.Francis II of Austria purchased it with the intention of installing it in Vienna’s Belvedere. Because it was too enormous for the structure, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria donated it to the Italian Congregation and placed it on the north wall of the church, where it still stands today. The mosaic measures 9.18 × 4.47 m and weighs over 20 tons.

Vienna, Austria