Wotruba Church

The Church of the Most Holy Trinity, universally called the Wotrubakirche, was designed by the sculptor Fritz Wotruba and built between 1974 and 1976 on a hill at the southern edge of Vienna. It is a single sculptural object rather than a building in the ordinary sense: a hundred and fifty-two concrete blocks of different sizes stacked and offset against each other with no façade, no symmetry and no repeated element, leaving irregular gaps that are glazed and admit light in bands. Wotruba died before it was finished and Fritz Gerhard Mayr carried it out. It was contentious - many locals wanted something recognisably ecclesiastical - and it is now regarded as one of the significant pieces of postwar architecture in Austria. It is an active parish church with limited visiting hours.

What you actually see

• 152 stacked concrete blocks - the whole church as one offset sculpture.
• Irregular glazed gaps - light entering in bands between the blocks.
• No façade or symmetry - no repeated element anywhere in the composition.
• A hilltop site - the Georgenberg above the southern edge of the city.

When to go

All year; check the limited opening hours. An hour.

Honest expectations

It opens only for a few hours on certain days plus services - a wasted trip is easy. It is out at the city edge and needs a bus from Liesing. The interior is small and bare.

Nearby

Mauer and Liesing are below; the Vienna Woods run west.