Sankt Laurenz am Schottenfeld

The Schottenfelder Kirche stands in Neubau, the seventh district of Vienna, near the Westbahn railway line. It is a Roman Catholic parish church dedicated to Saint Lawrence, built between 1784 and 1787 under the direction of Abbot Benno Pointner of Schottenstift. The church was designed by master builder Andreas Zach in a Baroque-Classical style, with a tall tower façade completed in 1787. From 1946 to 2020, its care passed to the German Order, though it remains under the ownership of Schottenstift. The building’s exterior features large Ionic pilasters above a high base, while inside, the two-bay nave is vaulted and extended in the second bay like a transept. The church is notable for its rich furnishings and artworks. The high altar was created by Benedikt Henrici between 1784 and 1786, following a design by Johann Baptist Hagenauer. Its mensa and pedestals display lead reliefs of the martyrdoms of Saints Peter and Paul and the Entombment of Christ, crafted by Johann Ferdinand Prokop. The original altarpiece, *Apotheosis of Saint Lawrence* by Peter Strudel, was replaced in 1852 by a new image of the saint by Carl Hemerlein. The church’s organ, originally built by Franz Xaver Krismann in 1788 and rebuilt several times, now has 26 stops across two manuals and pedal. Its stained glass windows include *Jonah* and *Coronation of Mary*, made by the Geyling firm in 1905. Visitors enter through a vaulted porch beneath an organ loft. The ceiling paintings, completed between 1869 and 1871 by Leopold Schulz, Ignaz Schönbrunner, and Anton Roux, depict the Last Judgement in rich illusionistic architecture by Friedrich Staudinger. The rounded apse contains side oratories built like small projecting chapels. Five bells hang in the tower, most cast in the mid-20th century by the Pfundner foundry in Vienna, with the smallest dating from the 19th century. The church’s long musical tradition includes the work of Leopold M. Kantner as church musician.