# Kirche am Steinhof: general view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [WAGNER, Otto]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary Wagner's late projects from 1903 radically continued the transformation of the work of Schinkel, Van der Nüll and Semper, as seen in his two master buildings: the sanatorium church of Kirche am Steinhof \(also called Leopoldskirche\), the church of the Steinhof Asylum in Penzing outside Vienna, and the Postsparkasse \(1903-12\), also in Vienna. These buildings are considered his most revolutionary work; both utilized new materials - steel, glass, aluminium - and innovative modes of construction in a highly successful fusion of functional building and aesthetic vision. The church is built on a Greek cross plan, surmounted by a steel-framed semicircular dome with a tall drum on an octagon. The domed ceiling within is carried on a gilded steel mesh. A modified Roman Doric order is expressed in four giant columns that pierce the projected transom of the entrance arch, to be crowned by bronze statuary below a deep, coffered cornice outlining the shallow narthex, transepts and sanctuary. The Jugendstil angels in gilded bronze are by Othmar Schimkowitz \(1864-1947\). On the two bell towers framing the façade, two saints \(Leopold on the right and Severin on the left\) by Richard Luksch \(1872-1936\) occupy seats designed by Josef Hoffmann. There is abundant decoration, submitted to a linear stylization kept within rectangles and squares. Although remotely Byzantinesque in character, it appears non-historicist and very much in the spirit of works by younger architects, such as Josef Maria Olbrich and Peter Behrens. ## Related artworks - [Armchair No. 8]() - [Armchair]() - [Armchair]() - [Kirche am Steinhof: interior]() - [Kirche am Steinhof: interior]() - [Kirche am Steinhof: main façade]() - [Länderbank: façade]() - [Länderbank: interior]() - [Majolica House: detail of the façade]() - [Majolica House: detail of the façade]() - [Majolica House: façade]() - [Majolica House: general view]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()