Pfarrkirche Sandleiten

The Pfarrkirche Sandleiten stands in Ottakring, the 16th district of Vienna, among the red-brick blocks of the Sandleitenhof, the largest municipal housing estate built between the wars. Built between 1935 and 1936, it was part of the church-building drive organised by the austrofascist regime. The architect Josef Vytiska designed a reinforced-concrete skeleton church dedicated to St Josef the Worker. In 1939 it became a parish church and is now protected as a monument. The church’s entrance is reached by a flight of steps topped with a concrete canopy. Above the doorway a round window carries the Christogram. On the east side a tower houses the bells and clock under a flat roof matching the church’s own. Inside, Hans Andre painted the fresco of St Josef and carved the relief of the Veil of Veronica. Karl Hauk and Albert Paris Gütersloh designed the stained glass and mosaics. The organ, built by Pirchner with mechanical action, has fourteen stops across two manuals and pedal. It was lent by the University of Music and Performing Arts after decades in their lecture halls. Anton Heiller, a noted teacher of organists, worked on the instrument for years, so the university chose to preserve it intact and install it here. The painted case harmonises with the church’s art, and the church lies close to Heiller’s birthplace and home in Heuberggasse.