Minoritenkirche (Vienna, Austria) - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

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The site on which the church is built was given to followers of Francis of Assisi in 1224. The foundation stone was laid by Premysl Ottokar II in 1276. Duke Albrecht II later supported the building process, especially the main portal. The Gothic Ludwig choir was built between 1316 and 1328, and used as a mausoleum in the 14th and 15th centuries. Construction of the church was completed in 1350. The top of its belltower was damaged during the first Austro-Turkish war, rebuilt, then again destroyed again during the second Austro-Turkish war; the top was then replaced by a flat roof. When Joseph II gave the church to the Italians as a present, they transferred the name Maria Schnee ("Mary of the Snows") from a nearby chapel which was subsequently destroyed.

The Minoritenkirche stands in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, northwest of the Hofburg, at the Minoritenplatz. The Minoriten were Franciscan monks (Latin: "fratres minores"). They were appointed in 1224 to Vienna. After the city fire of 1275, the foundation-stone for the new church was placed by Ottokar Premysl. It was one of the first Gothic churches in the east-Austrian area. After Ottokar's death in the battle on the Marchfeld, he was laid out here thirty weeks. A crucial break came in 1782, when the Minorite church was closed in the course of the religious politics of Joseph II. The church thereupon was renamed the "Italian National Church of Mary of the Snow" (Santa Maria Maggiore) – this name exists today still. In the course, the Minoriten brought the cross to its provided with a Christ picture also over the high altar, after evacuation to Wimpassing, so that, when it came some decades later back to Vienna, it was called the "Wimpassinger cross." A copy of it hangs today in the Stephansdom cathedral.