Burned Down Twice

Long before there was a palace standing next to it, people came to this village for the church. Hietzing had a statue of Mary that was said to work miracles, and pilgrims walked here from all over the surrounding area.

 

Twice it went wrong. In 1529 and again in 1683 an Ottoman army passed by Vienna, and the villages outside the walls lay unprotected in open country. Both times Hietzing burned, the church along with the village, and both times it was built back up again. What you see now is the baroque version from after that second destruction.

 

The rebuilding went quickly, and that had everything to do with the neighbours. The imperial court sat within walking distance and wanted a respectable parish church for its staff and its guests, so there was money and there was urgency.

 

Inside you'll find a high altar from the end of the seventeenth century, made by a court sculptor who also worked on the palace.

 

Towards the bridge stands a small white building that looks like a pavilion and turns out to be a station.