Maria am Gestade: The Church on the Riverbank
Why is it significant?
Stand at the foot of the steps and look up at the tower: instead of a solid spire, it ends in a seven-sided cupola of open stone tracery, like a crown made of lace. On a clear day you can see the sky straight through it.
Key Facts
| Place | Maria am Gestade: The Church on the Riverbank |
|---|---|
| Address | Salvatorgasse 12, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.21290, 16.37070 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna's Old Town Lanes: Stephansdom, Roman Stones and Medieval Legends |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand at the foot of the steps and look up at the tower: instead of a solid spire, it ends in a seven-sided cupola of open stone tracery, like a crown made of lace. On a clear day you can see the sky straight through it. It is one of the most delicate pieces of Gothic stonework in Vienna, and many visitors never find it.
The name means Mary on the Riverbank. In the Middle Ages an arm of the Danube flowed right below this spot, and the church stood on the edge of the high terrace above the landing place. Boatmen and fishermen came here to pray before going out on the water. The steep steps nearby, the Fischerstiege, are still named after the fishermen who climbed up from the river.
Now look at the shape of the building. It is very tall and very narrow, and if you walk along it you will notice that the nave is slightly bent. The builders had no room to spare on the narrow terrace, so they followed the curve of the ground. The church was largely built in the decades around 1400, and its choir glows inside with tall coloured windows.
In the nineteenth century, after years of neglect in the Napoleonic era, the church was given to the Redemptorists and to the Czech-speaking community of Vienna. It is also the resting place of Saint Clemens Maria Hofbauer, a baker's apprentice from Moravia who became a priest and a tireless helper of the poor, and who is today one of the patron saints of Vienna.
Stand still for a moment in front of the door and imagine the water below, the shouts of the boatmen and the smell of wet rope. The river has long since moved away, regulated and pushed out of the city, but the church still stands at the edge of a shore that no longer exists. Now walk back up Schwertgasse, cross Wipplingerstraße and enter a quiet square through Jordangasse.