Schlagwort: 1110wien

The Simmering crematorium with its urn grove and later extensions in the 11th district was built in 1922 as the first Austrian crematorium directly opposite the central cemetery. The facility with influences of German sacred architecture is considered one of the most famous buildings by the Austrian architect Clemens Holzmeister.

The construction was based on a municipal council resolution under the first democratically elected mayor of Vienna, Jakob Reumann, and was preceded by a controversy with the Christian-socialist federal government until the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the crematorium. Until the Second Vatican Council in 1963, cremation was still considered forbidden by the Catholic Church. More than 7,000 cremations are carried out there every year, and the adjacent cemetery contains around 42,000 graves and a pet cemetery.

Clemens Holzmeister, born in Tyrol in 1886 with Brazilian citizenship (his father had previously emigrated to South America), is considered one of the most important and internationally renowned Austrian architects of the 20th century. His work, comprising around seven hundred buildings, is characterized by the immense creative power of his 60 years of activity, particularly in Austria, Germany, Turkey and Brazil.

The Roman Catholic Karl Borromäus Church in the Central Cemetery (2nd gate) in Simmering, directly behind the Federal President’s Crypt built 40 years later, was completed in 1911 according to plans by the architect Max Hegele. In addition to the cemetery church built in Art Nouveau style, which was already planned when the cemetery was opened in 1874, Hegele also planned the main portal and the burial halls.

The former Dr. Karl Lueger Memorial Church, which was reopened in 2000 in the course of a general renovation, was probably renamed because of the anti-Semitic views of the former mayor, who had a tomb built under the main altar in the course of its construction.

The striking, centrally domed rotunda is strongly reminiscent of the Otto Wagner Church at Steinhof, who was himself on the jury evaluating the cemetery buildings put out to tender and was thus familiar with Hegeles‘ plans of 1899.

The rondeau of the Federal President’s Crypt in the chapel courtyard in front of the church is the burial place of the Federal Presidents of the Second Republic. In the centre is a stone sarcophagus with the Federal Coat of Arms.