Altkatholische Kirche

Altkatholische Kirche stands within the Prunerstift in Linz, Austria, a Baroque foundation built around two inner courtyards. Its street entrance combines Baroque granite, a coat of arms, and two angels supporting a five-pointed baron’s crown. The church occupies the middle wing, which ends in a semicircular choir beneath a roof turret and double cross.

Johann Adam Pruner dedicated the foundation’s wealth to poor people and orphans through his 1730 will. Construction began in 1737 on the former Egereck Castle site, using stone and other materials from the demolished castle. The complex opened in 1739, with dormitories, a classroom, and a music room for orphaned boys. Later, the building held a hospital, a maternity home, rental housing, and Upper Austria’s first institutional care for people with mental illnesses from 1788. After the Old Catholic congregation received permission to use the space in 1918, its members renovated the former iron warehouse for worship.

Inside, a ceiling fresco shows poor and sick people reaching towards an angel with a coin-filled cornucopia. The 1738 main altar painting by Martino Altomonte depicts the Three Wise Men adoring the infant Jesus and remains Linz’s largest nativity painting. Eight wooden angels from the early furnishings and two 1737 bells add further traces of the church’s first years.