Singerstrasse 7
Tel. 512 1065
Subway: Stephansplatz
Church Open: 7am- 6pm daily
Treasury Open: 10am- 12pm Tue, Thu, Sat
3- 5pm Wed, Fri
Closed: Sun, Mon and public holidays
Deutschordenskirche is a medieval church that was constructed in 14th century by the Order of Teutonic Knights, one of the most powerful military monastic Catholic orders of Europe that was originally found in the 12th century. You can see their coat of arms and other memorabilia hanging all over the wall of this church. The altar was added in 1520 by Flemish artisans. The Treasury of the disbanded Order is adjacent to the church's courtyard. Grand Master of Teutonic knights gathered splendid religious items, coins, medals, books and many other items. This beautiful Roman Catholic Gothic church was later reconstructed in the 1720's under supervision of architect Anton Erhard Martinelli.
From the predecessor church of the Teutonic Order,
the church tower from the 13th century has been preserved. After
several city fires, the nave was rebuilt in stages and
re-consecrated on the 4th Sunday of Advent in 1395 and placed under
the patronage of the Order's patron saint, St. Elizabeth of
Thuringia. The originally rectangular shape of the Gothic nave has a
star vault. On the south side to Singerstraße were four large
windows. In the Baroque period, the nave was converted into an oval
room. As a result, galleries covered with Gothic ornamentation were
created in the corners, which are accessed by eight apartments
located behind.
The portal of the Deutschordenhaus and the
passageway to the courtyard behind it form the entrance to the
church. On the right you can reach the church vestibule via a small
staircase, as the level of the longhouse floor is raised to the
street level. On the church walls more than eighty escutcheons are
shown, so-called Aufschwörschilde, mostly divided coats of arms with
the four heraldic fields of wealthy knights who deposited their coat
of arms in the church after the knighthood. The winged altar was
created in 1520 in Mechelen for St. Mary's Church in Gdansk and came
in 1864 to Vienna. The high altarpiece of 1667, painted by Tobias
Pock, shows the Order's patron saint: the enthroned Mary with the
Infant Jesus and the saints Elisabeth, Georg and Helena. In the
course of the liturgical reform in 1986, the substructure of the
winged altar was renewed and a celebration altar and an ambo were
added. The cuspinian altar shows the founder John Cuspinian and his
two wives Agnes and Anna. There are three funerary monuments to
Erasmus Graf Starhemberg, to Guidobald Graf Starhemberg and to
Johann Josef Philipp Count Harrach. After the death of the last
Austro-Hungarian monarch Karl I./IV. On April 8, 1922, the Knights
of the Order of the Golden Fleece held a funeral service for him in
the Deutschordenskirche.