Yesterday Sunday, hubby spontaneously asked me and said whether I would snap my camera because we would be going to Mexicoplatz to see the 3 Day -End of summer festival there. Of course I said yes... I would finally have the chance to photograph the church!!! But we came late and the people who joined the feast were already going home and the tents were being uninstalled. Well, for me not so bad at all as I had been wanting to go there and take pictures of the parish church.
St. Francis of Assisi Parish Church
Location : Mexicoplatz (Mexico Square)
The parish church of St. Francis of Assisi is a Roman Catholic church completed in 1910 and is located in the 2nd Viennese district called Leopoldstadt. It was erected in the southwestern part of the Reichsbrücke (Empire Bridge).
The locals call the parish church Mexicokirche since it is located in the Mexico Square. The Square was named as such in 1956 in honor of Mexico´s support and protest for Austria´s annexation to Nazi Germany in 1938.
Architecture
The church was built according to a competition design by the architect Victor Luntz (1840–1903) in the Rhenish-Romanesque style. In terms of the design of the building and its position on the river, the design was based on the Gross St. Martin church in Cologne. The three massive towers are covered with red roof tiles and can be seen from afar. In the towers the church reaches a total height of 73 m, the length is 76 m.
Church Interior
Below are images to show you its interior since I was not able to take photos inside because the church was closed.
The Elizabeth Chapel [Below image]
According to history, the construction of the church began in 1898.... in the same year, "Kaiserin (Sissy) Elizabeth" wife of the Emperor Franz Josef I was murdered by an anarchist named Luigi Lucheni in Geneva.
Due to the sad event and in memory of the famous Empress, they added a chapel on the left side of the church in her honor in Jugendstil which they said is a very important monument in Vienna in Art Nouveau style. Kaiserin Elizabeth was the main sponsor of The Red Cross during the reign of her husband and when she died, they made a fundraising campaign in the whole countries of the Habsburg Monarchy to fund the construction of the chapel in her honor.
Instead of decorating the Elizabeth Chapel with fresco paintings, those responsible decided to decorate it with mosaic tiles and with a marble wall instead of stucco. And although the artist was made to understand that the chapel should be decorated in the style of the Neo-romanesque, what came out is a fusion of a unique synthesis of the arts that harmoniously unites examples from different artistic eras.
This is the main door of the parish church that is made of metal and copper. It is massive and high, its front has a wooden roof with massiv wood pillars with simple carvings. In addition, the church has side doors on the left and right side which are also made of the same materials.
The back of the parish church is facing the Danube River. The three towers were nicely built and is not overcrowding each other ...the whole composition of the structures can be seen from the other side of the Reichsbrücke which is definitely very impressive.
Original content, images are owned by me, @mers [except images of the interior of the church which were properly sourced]
