Kreuzkirche Wien-Penzing

The Kreuzkirche stands in Penzing, the fourteenth district of Vienna, on a quiet side street south of the Westbahn railway. Built between 1930 and 1931 to designs by Theophil Niemann, it is an evangelical Lutheran church whose symmetrical façade shows neogothic triangles and a small bell turret. The street once lay inside the thirteenth district, Hietzing, before the city’s boundaries were redrawn in 1938. Inside, the church is largely the work of Erwin Schneider, parish priest and designer of its windows. The glass shows figures such as Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon and Johann Sebastian Bach, while two wall paintings copy Albrecht Dürer’s Four Apostles. Carved on the pulpit are the four Evangelists by Ferdinand Opitz. With the Verklärungskirche and the Zwinglikirche, the Kreuzkirche marks the peak of interwar Austrian Protestant architecture, rejecting old layouts in favour of practical forms. The building’s history begins with a preaching hall opened in 1914 on the same site. In 1934 the former house organ of composer Franz Schmidt was installed, and from 1938 to 1972 Julius Peter served as cantor, directing many concerts in the church. A new organ was added in 1997 and inaugurated by Norbert Zeilberger. The surrounding area remains a loosely built quarter, giving the church a calm setting away from the city’s busier streets.