St. Josef

St. Josefskirche stands on the Kahlenberg, a hill in Vienna’s 19th district. It began as the church of a Kamaldulenser hermitage founded in 1628. The cornerstone was laid in 1629 and the main structure completed by 1639. During the second Turkish siege in 1683 the building was destroyed. Reconstruction finished in 1734, but the order was dissolved in 1782. The estate was bought by Leopold von Kriegl, who restored it and reopened it in 1783. The church later served the small settlement of Josefsdorf. The church is worth visiting for its role in the 1683 relief of Vienna. Polish Resurrectionist priests have cared for it since 1906 in memory of Jan Sobieski. Pope John Paul II visited in 1983. Inside, the Sobieski Memorial Chapel holds historical images of the battle. The high altar’s 17th-century crucifixion group and paintings by Peter Johann Brandl remain from the hermitage period. Pope Innocent XI donated the Madonna of the Name after the siege. Visitors enter a single-nave Baroque church. A side door shows a statue of St Josef. The ante-room displays drawings and prints of the 1683 battle. The nave contains further Baroque paintings, including works by Friedrich Schilcher. The Sobieski Chapel, once the Schutzengelkapelle, now forms part of the Kahlenberg Museum. The high altar shows a crucifix flanked by images of St Hieronymus and St John the Baptist. Behind it hangs a copy of the Madonna of the Name, a gift from Innocent XI. Side altars hold a Nativity scene, a modern icon of Our Lady of Ludźmierz, a Baptism of Christ and a copy of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.