Karmelitenkirche

Karmelitenkirche stands in Linz, Upper Austria, as a Roman Catholic Baroque building shaped by Vienna’s Josefskirche. Its strongly structured west facade frames an entrance guarded by Saint Teresa and Saint John. Above them, Saint Joseph occupies a gable niche in a statue created in 1722. Wheelchair access makes the building available to visitors with limited mobility.

The Carmelite convent began here in 1671, while the present building received its foundation stone in 1690. Construction finished in 1710, followed by a second building phase between 1720 and 1726. Johann Raas designed the main facade, while Martin Witwer and Johann Michael Prunner refined its details. Inside, Diego Francesco Carlone and Paolo d’Allio supplied elaborate stucco, and Martino Altomonte painted the Holy Family for the high altar in 1724.

A richly decorated pulpit from 1714 stands among confessionals carved in 1711 and chapels with wrought-iron grilles. On the altar table, a glass coffin holds the relics of Saint Felix, placed there in 1733. The present organ dates from 1969 and has 28 stops across two manuals and pedal. Its mechanical action preserves one more chapter in a musical history that began with an organ completed in 1713.