St. Rupert’s Church: Vienna’s Oldest Surviving Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page9 sections
History
St. Rupert’s Church is a Roman Catholic church in Vienna, Austria, associated with a Salzburg foundation and a Romanesque building whose surviving fabric dates chiefly from the early twelfth century. Dedicated to Saint Rupert of Salzburg, an early Christian bishop linked with the foundation of the Salzburg church and the salt trade, it is traditionally regarded as Vienna’s oldest surviving church.
Foundation and early history
Tradition places the church’s foundation in 740 and attributes it to Cunald and Gisalrich, companions of Rupert. A foundation between 796 and 829 is considered more historically probable because Salzburg exercised religious influence in Vienna during that period. The church stands in the area of Vindobona, a Roman military camp located in the area of present-day Vienna. The surrounding district later became a nucleus of the city after the Roman settlement was destroyed, although this proposed development has not been confirmed archaeologically.
St. Rupert’s was first mentioned in 1200, in a record concerning Duke Heinrich II Jasomirgott’s donation to the Schottenstift. That document called it Vienna’s oldest church. The earlier Peterskirche was in fact older, but St. Rupert’s is regarded as the oldest church in Vienna that still survives. Peterskirche had served as a late-antique parish church, and its parish rights passed to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in 1147 after the Treaty of Mautern.
Medieval rebuilding and the salt trade
During the Middle Ages, St. Rupert’s was associated with the Salt Office, the institution that administered the tightly controlled salt monopoly, sold salt to individual retailers, and supervised its quality. Salt merchants used a nearby landing place on the Danube Canal. The trade left its mark on the district’s names, including Salzgasse, Salzgries, Salztorgasse, and Salztorbrücke.
A major fire in 1276 destroyed much of Vienna’s city center and damaged the church. Rebuilding brought Gothic changes, including a polygonal apse and an additional storey for the tower. A Gothic side aisle was probably added on the right side of the nave in the mid-fourteenth century, when three pointed arches were opened through the nave’s south wall.
Early modern repairs
The Salt Office official Georg Nagl restored the church in 1622, a project commemorated by an inscription. Further repairs took place between 1701 and 1703, financed by Johann Baptist Bartolotti von Partenfeld. These interventions contributed to the building’s later Baroque appearance while leaving its earlier Romanesque and Gothic elements in place.
War damage and the modern parish
Shellfire damaged St. Rupert’s during the Second World War, and the demolition of the ruins of a nearby building also affected the church. The parish community was newly established in 1986. Its first rector was Joop Roeland, OSA, followed by Gernot Wisser, SJ. The church remains active within the Archdiocese of Vienna and has heritage status in Austria.
St. Rupert’s continuing historical importance is reflected in its traditional description as Vienna’s oldest surviving church. Discoveries beneath St. Peter’s Church and old graves beneath St. Stephen’s Cathedral have, however, complicated the wider question of which church should be considered the city’s oldest.
Remains
St. Rupert’s is approximately 27 metres long and 13 metres wide. Its northwest-by-west-facing facade belongs to a Romanesque building altered in Gothic and Baroque periods, and the church has a stated capacity of about 100 people. The surviving structure is organized around a nave and choir, with a gallery, tower, polygonal apse, and later side aisle. Its entrance-area floor slabs and the steps of the small staircase leading to the gallery are made from Kaisersteinbruch stone.
Romanesque and Gothic structure
The oldest surviving fabric consists of the walls of the main nave and choir, the gallery, and the lower levels of the tower. The tower retains Romanesque biforia, or paired-arched openings. The Gothic rebuilding after the 1276 fire created the polygonal apse and raised the tower by one storey. The probable fourteenth-century side aisle is connected to the nave by three pointed arches cut through its south wall.
Glass, gallery, and furnishings
The central window of the apse contains Vienna’s oldest surviving stained glass, dating from the third quarter of the thirteenth century. It depicts the crucified Christ and the Madonna with the infant. Beside the Gothic apse windows are windows made by Heinrich Tahedl in 1949. Since 1993, the church has also contained 22 modern stained-glass windows by Lydia Roppolt. Three large windows on the right side of the nave form a cycle praising God after deliverance from extreme distress, with scenes of Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah and the whale, and the three youths in the fiery furnace. The remaining windows concern praise of creation.
An inscription on the gallery railing reads “AEIOU 1439.” It presents the personal motto of Emperor Frederick III, the fifteenth-century Habsburg ruler who became Duke of Austria and later Holy Roman Emperor. The plaque commemorates his entry into Vienna on 6 December 1439, the year in which he became Duke of Austria. Ignaz Kienast created the bronze tabernacle, formed with barrel staves, in 1998.
Tombstone, bells, and devotional objects
The oldest tombstone in the church commemorates Ulrich Schwaiger. Carved from red Salzburg marble, it bears a date that may be 1503 or 1521. The later date is considered more probable because Schwaiger was documented as the owner of the house at Judengasse 9 in 1518.
Three bells hang in the tower, and all are still rung manually by ropes. Two are regarded as historically valuable. The central bell survived the 1276 fire, while a second was added when the tower was raised. The third is a recasting made in 1823 by Johann Caspar Hofbauer the Younger. A separate bell once used to strike the hours also hangs in the tower and has long been out of use.
A statue of Saint Rupert stands in the northern part of the main tower. The church also contains a relic associated with the sarcophagus of Saint Vitalis of Salzburg, said to contain the remains of a Christian victim from the Roman catacombs, and a Black Madonna. The Saint Vitalis memorial has particular modern significance because the Gestapo headquarters at nearby Morzinplatz was used for torture and for organizing the deportation of Jews.
