Pilgrimage church Maria Grün

The Roman Catholic pilgrimage church Maria Grün in the Prater near the Lusthaus from 1924 was built as a continuation of a forest devotion for school children of a nearby elementary school located there. Maria Grün refers to the image of Mary with the Child sitting in the Prater meadows above the main altar.

Lively pilgrimages were abruptly interrupted by WWII and the church was also severely damaged. After reconstruction and renovation in 2009 the simple church building with portal house and sacristy annex together with a small chapel and a popular Stations of the Cross with representation of the Holy Sepulchre (= a structural imitation of the rotunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem) can be seen.

Since 2000, the site has also been the seat of the AIDS chaplaincy of the Archdiocese of Vienna, with a memorial for deceased HIV-infected persons.