Herz-Jesu-Kirche, Innsbruck

The Herz-Jesu-Kirche stands in Innsbruck’s city centre as a former Catholic church built between 1896 and 1898. It was designed by Peter Huter with Alfons and Franz Mayr and decorated under Josef Schmid’s direction until 1909. The building served the Redemptorist monastery next door until 2019, when it passed to the Serbian Orthodox community. The church is listed as a protected monument and still shows its original neuroman style. Its three-part façade along Maximilianstraße rises to a central tower topped with a steep spire. Inside, the barrel-vaulted porch leads to a two-bay nave, a pseudo-transept and a rounded apse, all rib-vaulted. The ceiling paintings by Jonas Ranter, Heinrich Schmid, Anton Marte, Mentel and Eduard Sailer depict scenes from Christ’s life, the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Crucifixion. Statues of the Sacred Heart, Saint Alfons and Saint Clement Maria Hofbauer flank the main entrance. Visitors find marble altars by Leopold Seeber, a marble pulpit by Alois Winkler with Evangelist reliefs, and a marble Stations of the Cross. The wrought-iron screen in the porch was made by Robert Platzer during construction. A Lourdes chapel occupies the left side and a Totenkapelle with Emmerich Kerle’s bronze Resurrection figure the right. The 1900 organ was built to designs by Pater Johann Maria Reiter and A. Vogl.