Pfarrkirche Mariabrunn

Pfarrkirche Mariabrunn is a Baroque Roman Catholic parish and pilgrimage church in Vienna’s Hadersdorf area, within Penzing’s fourteenth district. The building stands beside the former Mariabrunn monastery, with the church and monastery arranged at an angle. Inside, a richly decorated hall church contains side chapels, a barrel vault, and a narrow groin-vaulted presbytery.

A Marian statue at the high altar connects the church with a local legend about Queen Gisela and a healing well. The statue dates from the first half of the sixteenth century and continues a pilgrimage tradition reaching back to the Middle Ages. Ferdinand III laid the foundation stone for the present church, which was completed and consecrated in 1655. The former monastery later housed an imperial forestry academy, where Josef Ressel studied, and now contains a state forestry institute and small museum.

A Baroque fountain outside carries a replica of the Marian statue and an inscription recalling Gisela and Maximilian. The church also preserves an organ built by Gottfried Sonnholz, restored with its historic mechanical action. Its accessible interior brings together imperial history, pilgrimage, architecture, and a legend centred on water.