VOTIVE CHURCH, VIENNA

The Votive Church (German: Votivkirche) is a neo-Gothic church located on the Ringstraße in Vienna. Following the attempted assassination of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853, the Emperor’s brother Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian inaugurated a campaign to create a church to thank God for saving the Emperor’s life.

This impressive altar catches the eye with its gilded retable and an elaborate ciborium over it. The artist Joseph Glasser drew his inspiration for the ciborium from examples in Italian Gothic churches. The marble altar is decorated with panels with glass mosaic inlays work. and is supported by six alabaster columns. The hexagonal Neo-Gothic pulpit stands on six marble pillars. The front panels show us in the middle a preaching Christ, flanked on both sides by the Church Fathers: Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory, Saint Jerome, and Saint Ambrose.