St. Michael’s Church

The interior of the church is comprised of a nave and two aisles that have been preserved from the original Gothic building. The side chapels were later constructed.

Despite the church’s low height, it provides the sense of a solid three-dimensional structure. In the 14th century (1327-1340), an early Gothic choir with three bays replaced the polygonal apse. The central and northern choir chapels were both renovated in the Baroque style.

Jean-Baptiste d’Avrange created the high altar in 1782. It is adorned with artist Karl Georg Merville’s enormous stucco alabaster Rococo masterpiece Fall of the Angels (1782). It depicts an angel and cherub cloudburst dropping from the roof to the earth. It was Vienna’s final great Baroque work to be finished. Maria Candia, a Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary belonging to the Cretan School of hagiography and named after the old capital (now Heraklion), is shown as being borne by two archangels.

Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1754-1755) created the altarpiece Adoration of the Child in the northern chapel.

The southern chapel, the Nikolauskapelle, has been preserved in its medieval form. Its traceried windows were built in the 13th century. It has Gothic stone statues (St. Catherine and St. Nicolaus) under a baldachin (1350) and a wooden crucifix by Hans Schlais (1510-1520). This chapel was erected in 1350 by a duke’s chef in thanksgiving for being acquitted of a poisoning charge. The triumphal arch that connects the transept and the choir was built in the 14th century. The spandrel is adorned with The Last Judgment.

The freshly found frescoes from the early 15th century demonstrate to the great level of painting in Vienna during that period. The Baptistery has the wooden figure Man of Sorrows (1430) in a niche.

Johann David Sieber’s gilded pipe organ (1714) is Vienna’s largest Baroque organ. In 1749, the 17-year-old Joseph Haydn performed it.Mozart’s Requiem was originally sung at this church on December 10, 1791, at a memorial ceremony for the composer. Because Mozart had not completed this composition when he died, just the current section was played. Among those attending the “festive funerary honors” was theatrical director Emanuel Schikaneder, whose libretto was utilized by Mozart in The Magic Flute.

Ernest Koch designed the current façade in 1792 in the Neoclassical style, which was popular during Emperor Joseph II’s rule. Above the entrance, on top of the pediment, resting on Antonio Beduzzi’s Doric columns, is a group of winged angels with St. Michael defeating Lucifer (1725). These sculptural figures were created by the Italian artist Lorenzo Mattielli, who also created the Hercules statues at the Hofburg gate, just across from the church. The towering polygonal Gothic bell tower from the 16th century has become one of the Inner City’s icons.