Herz Mariä Kirche

The parish church of Herz Mariä stands in the Josefstadt district of Wiener Neustadt, a town in Lower Austria. It occupies a quiet corner on Pottendorfer Straße, a short walk from the former military hospital area. The building replaced a temporary wooden chapel that had served the local community since the First World War. After the war the chapel became a meeting place, but in 1934 Cardinal Theodor Innitzer rededicated it as a proper church for the workers’ quarter. The present church was designed by Josef Patzelt and built between 1957 and 1959. Patzelt had studied liturgical art and took inspiration from Robert Kramreiter’s church at Hohe Wand. The result is a plain rectangular concrete structure with a low hipped roof and a slender bell tower. Inside, a continuous ceiling band guides the eye towards the altar. The half-circular apse, nine metres high, is lit by a large stained-glass window in the French manner, created by local artist Florian Jakowitsch. The church also houses an 1891 organ and a 17th-century bell that once hung in the castle church. Visitors enter through a row of triple windows that symbolise the Trinity. The side chapel, open to the nave, offers a place for quiet prayer. The surrounding streets belong to the post-war workers’ estate, giving the church a modest neighbourhood setting. The building’s unadorned lines and careful proportions make it a calm witness to the faith of its community.