Vienna - Mary on the Strand Church

(Local Name: Maria am Gestade Kirche) First mentioned in documents in 1158, the Church of Maria am Gestade (Mary on the Strand) is popularly called the "Maria-Stiegen-Kirche" (Mary on the Steps). As its name suggests, it once stood on the banks of the old arm of the Danube. It is the Czech national church, and its entrancing pierced Gothic cupola is one of the characteristic sights of the northern Old City of Vienna.

Maria am Gestade, originally a wooden oratory dating from the ninth C., used to stand on the steep slope up from the Danube. The present building, with its Gothic stained glass, was erected mainly between 1394 and 1414. The tower was badly damaged during the Turkish sieges and was renewed in the 16th C., while extensive restoration work was carried out in the 19th and 20th C. The west front of the church is only some 10m/30ft wide but nearly 33m/105ft high. The building looms above the old, narrow lanes like the prow of a ship. Inside, two Gothic sandstone figures (near the second pillar on the east side of the nave) date from the 14th C., while two Gothic paintings in the chapel dedicated to Clemens Maria Hofbauer, the patron saint of the city of Vienna, are 15th C. The organ gallery and a stone Renaissance altar in the Johann Perger Chapel are 16th C.; the other church furnishings are 19th C. work.