St. George's Church, Vienna

The Georgskirche stands in Vienna’s first district, near the old ‘Greek quarter’ on a narrow street called Hafnersteig. It is an Orthodox church built to serve the Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire who lived in the city. The present building replaced a small chapel set up in 1709 inside a private house. The church is worth visiting for its unusual history and the people who shaped it. In 1802 the community bought the inn ‘Küss den kleinen Pfennig’ and built the present church between 1802 and 1806 under architect Franz Wipplinger. A major restoration in 1898 added the copper-domed bell tower designed by Ludwig Tischler and Johann Sturany, funded by donors such as Nikolaus Dumba, Simon von Sina and Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. The interior paintings were created around 1907 by Konstantinos Parthenis, who was born in Ioannina. Visitors enter through a side door in Griechengasse and find a single-nave interior topped by a dome. The walls carry large religious paintings by Parthenis showing saints and biblical scenes. Above the icon screen hangs Christ as Pantokrator, while the entrance arch bears an image of Mary and the child. The façade is modelled on a Greek temple, its pediment showing Saint George slaying the dragon, carved by Franz Vogl.