Vienna - Snow Madonna Italian National Church

(Local Name: Minoritenkirche) The former Minorites' church has officially been named the Snow Madonna Italian National Church since 1786. It has been a Franciscan church since 1957. The first church of the "Frates Minores" in Vienna dates from 1230. It was a little chapel dedicated to the Holy Rood which twice burnt down. To replace it Duke Albrecht the Wise had the present Gothic aisle-less church built in the 14th C. In the course of rebuilding in the Baroque period between 1784 and 1789 Ferdinand von Hohenberg restored its Gothic appearance. Of particular architectural interest is the Gothic main portal, designed by Duke Albrecht's confessor, Father Jacobus in 1340-45. Inside can be seen Giacomo Raffaelli's copy in mosaic of Leonardo da Vinci's famous "Last Supper". It was commissioned by Napoleon I, who wanted to take the Milan original to Paris and replace it with the Vienna copy. After Napoleon's fall the Austrian court agreed to purchase the copy at a cost of 400,000 guilders. In 1845 it finally returned to the Minoritenkirche. The picture above the High Altar by Chr. Unterberger is also a copy; the original "Snow Madonna" is an object of veneration in the Esquiline in Rome.