MARIA AM GESTADE, VIENNA

Maria am Gestade (Mary at the Shore) is a Gothic church in Vienna. One of the oldest churches in the city—along with St. Peter’s Church and St. Rupert’s Church—it is one of the few surviving examples of Gothic architecture in Vienna.

The church’s most striking characteristic is the 56 m high open work tower, built in 1419-1428 in Gothic scroll-work. It is recognizable from a great distance and is depicted on the oldest images of the city. The choir, whose construction was begun at the same time as the tower around 1330 contains two high Gothic panels (1460). The windows contain surviving fragments of medieval stained glass. The nave which, due to the limited space, is narrower than the choir. An Annunciation in the nave of the church dates from about 1360 and is attributed to the Meister der Minoritenwerkstatt whose work also appears in Vienna’s Minoritenkirche. The Virgin’s partial disengagement from the wall and the spatial independence of the gestures are considered to make this an important transitional piece of the High Gothic.