Klosterkirche Maria Unbefleckte Empfängnis, Innsbruck

The Klosterkirche der Barmherzigen Schwestern stands in Innsbruck’s Saggen district, a quiet quarter beside the old Mühlauer Bridge. The church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, is a late-19th-century Romanesque Revival basilica with a cloister attached to the convent. Both the church and cloister are protected monuments, marking their importance to the city’s history. The building began in 1881 under architect Franz Mayr, who modelled it on Rome’s Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Completed in 1883, it was consecrated in 1884 by Bishop Simon Aichner. The sisters had moved to the site in 1862 after earlier homes in the city centre. Their first chapel of 1855 still survives within the complex. Inside, the six-bay basilica has a raised central nave with coupled round-arched windows framed in pointed Gothic tracery. The flat coffered ceiling shows the Jesse Tree in square panels copied from St Michael’s in Hildesheim. August Mayr the Elder painted the walls and organ loft with figures and stencilled patterns. Josef Schmid carved the altarpieces, while the high altar’s crucifix was added in 1963 by Josef Staud. The apse mosaics depict the twelve apostles beneath canopies, with the Virgin Mary above in gold. The cloister walls carry a painted frieze and the fourteen Stations of the Cross.