Pfarrplatz 4, 4020 Linz
Open daily 9 am – 6 pm
Sunday service at 9:15 am
Pfarrplatz 4, 4020 Linz
Open daily 9 am – 6 pm
Sunday service at 9:15 am
The City Parish Church (Stadtpfarrkirche) belongs to the oldest parish in Linz. It was built at the beginning of the 13th century, when the town grew beyond its old limits, close to the town wall and east of the main square. The church is first mentioned in a document in 1286, and until the 18th century it was the only church in Linz where baptisms and weddings took place. It is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
The church owes its present appearance to the Baroque period: in the 17th and 18th centuries it was remodelled in several stages, and today you enter a Baroque church with a nave and two aisles.
The church is open every day from 9 am to 6 pm. You are welcome to look around, take a rest or pray. The Sunday service is at 9:15 am.
The step-free entrance is the side door on the right as you face the main front of the church.
The Emperor’s heart. To the right of the high altar, a splendid gravestone of red marble marks the place where the heart and inner organs of Emperor Frederick III are buried. He lived in Linz from 1489 and died here on 19 August 1493. By the custom of the time, the inner organs were buried where a person died. The Latin inscription speaks of his heart, “which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for 50 years, always loving peace”.
Anton Bruckner. The composer Anton Bruckner was organist at the City Parish Church from 1855 to 1868, and a plaque next to the main entrance remembers him. The present organ, rebuilt in 2002 by the German organ builder Gerald Woehl, uses pipes from the old instrument and restores the core of the organ Bruckner played.
The tower and its bells. The slender yellow tower with its onion dome is 84 metres high, the third tallest church tower in Upper Austria. It holds nine bells, most of them from the 17th century, which survived both World Wars. The largest, the “Kaiserin” (Empress), goes back to a bell cast for Emperor Frederick III.
High altar. The altar, consecrated around 1772, shows the Assumption of Mary, painted in 1695 by Carl von Reslfeld, the painter of Garsten Abbey. Beside it stand St Joseph with the Child Jesus, St Leopold, and Mary’s parents, St Anne and St Joachim. Above the sanctuary, a ceiling fresco of 1772 shows the Triumph of Religion.
Pulpit. The late Baroque pulpit was made between 1772 and 1777. On its unusual sounding board sit Moses with the Ten Commandments and King David with his harp.
Sacrament altar (front left). The tabernacle holds the consecrated host. The paintings by the Baroque painter Joachim von Sandrart (1652) show the Last Supper and, above it, the martyrdom of St Barbara. They are the most important paintings in the church in terms of art history, though sadly very darkened.
Lady altar (left side chapel). An early Baroque statue of Mary surrounded by cherubs, a “Madonna of Victory” typical of the Counter-Reformation.
Altar of the Cross (back left). Its late Gothic crucifix from the 15th century is the oldest work of art in the church. As was customary at the time, the figure of Christ wears a wig of real hair. The statues of Mary and St John date from around 1690.
Organ. The organ case dates from the 1950s. Inside, the instrument rebuilt in 2002 keeps pipes from Bruckner’s time.
Baptism Chapel (back right). Built in 1737 to designs by the Linz architect Johann Michael Prunner as his own burial chapel, and dedicated to St John of Nepomuk, it is an important example of early Rococo in Upper Austria. The baptismal font in the middle dates from 1770.
St Florian’s altar (right side chapel). St Florian, the patron saint of Upper Austria, died as a martyr near Linz in 304. The altar picture, a copy made in 1860, shows Linz at the beginning of the 18th century: the City Parish Church is easy to spot on the left, the Jesuit church (today’s Alter Dom) on the right, and in the middle the road between the fields that is now the Landstraße.
St Erasmus’ altar (right side chapel). The painting shows Bishop St Erasmus being carried to heaven by angels.
St Ignatius’ altar (front right). The painting of 1777, in the style of Bartolomeo Altomonte, shows St Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order. Around 1600, the Jesuits preached in this church for several decades.
Our full church guide and history are in German: Kirchenführer · Geschichte