Friedrich von Schmidt (October 22, 1825 – January 23, 1891) was an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who worked in late 19th century

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Life and career

Von Schmidt was born in Frickenhofen, Gschwend,

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. After studying at the technical high school in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

under Breymann and Mauch, he became, in 1845, one of the guild workers employed in building

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese ...

, on which he worked for fifteen years. Most of the working drawings for the towers were made by Schmidt and Vincenz Statz. In 1848 he attained the rank of master-workman and in 1856 passed the state examination as architect. After becoming a Catholic in 1858, he went to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

as professor of architecture and began the restoration of the cathedral of Sant'Ambrogio. On account of the confusion caused by the war of 1859 he went to Vienna, where he was a professor at the academy and cathedral architect from 1862; in 1865 he received the title of chief architect, and in 1888 was ennobled by the emperor. In the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style he built in Vienna the , Saint Othmar's Church (in German: ''Sankt Othmar unter den Weißgerbern'', literally "Saint Othmar among the White Tanners") in the 3rd district (

Landstraße Landstraße (; Central Bavarian: ''Laundstrossn'') is the 3rd municipal district of Vienna, Austria (german: 3. Bezirk). It is near the center of Vienna and was established in the 19th century. Landstraße is a heavily populated urban area with m ...

) and that of the

Brigittines The Bridgettines, or Birgittines, formally known as the Order of the Most Holy Savior (; abbreviated OSsS), is a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Saint Birgitta or Bridget of Sweden in 1344, and approved by Pope Urba ...

. He also built a school, the Akademisches Gymnasium, with a Gothic facade and the memorial building erected on the site of the

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

that had been destroyed by fire. The last mentioned building was in Venetian Gothic. A large number of small ecclesiastical and secular buildings in Austria and Germany were designed by him. His last work was the restoration of the cathedral in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; hr, Pečuh; german: Fünfkirchen, ; also known by other #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the countr ...

in Hungary. His chief fame however he gained by his restoration of

St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna St. Stephen's Cathedral (german: Stephansdom) is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Ordo Praedicato ...

. He took down the

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

and worked on its rebuilding up to 1872. He also designed the Town Hall or

Rathaus, Vienna Vienna City Hall (German: ''Wiener Rathaus'') is the seat of local government of Vienna, located on Rathausplatz in the Innere Stadt district. Constructed from 1872 to 1883 in a Neo-Gothic style according to plans designed by Friedrich von ...

, with a projecting middle section which has a central tower that rises free to a height of 328 ft. and is flanked by four smaller towers. A large court and six smaller ones are enclosed by the extensive building, the wings of which end in pavilions. In building the parish church in Funfhaus he even ventured to set a facade with two towers in front of an octagonal central structure with a high

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, f ...

and a corona of chapels. His motto was to unite German force with Italian freedom. He modified the tendency to height in the German Gothic by horizontal members and introduced many modifications into the old standard of the style in the hope of attaining a more agreeable general effect. He also designed

Vaduz Cathedral Vaduz Cathedral, or Cathedral of St. Florin (German: ''St. Florinskirche in Vaduz'' or ''Kathedrale St. Florin''), is a neo-Gothic church in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and the centre of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vaduz. Originally a parish c ...

and St. Joseph's Cathedral in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

. From 1870 to 1882, he worked as chief architect on the neoromanesque Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Đakovo as successor of

Carl Roesner Carl Roesner (19 June 1804, Vienna - 13 July 1869, Steyr) was an Austrian architect. Life He studied architecture in Vienna and Rome. In 1826, he began his work as a proofreader for lectures at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and, in 1835, beca ...

. He was teacher and model to many younger architects, including

Friedrich Grünanger Friedrich Grünanger (25 January 1856 – 14 December 1929) was a Transylvanian Austrian architect who worked primarily in Bulgaria. Born in Schäßburg in Austria-Hungary (today Sighişoara in Romania), Grünanger studied at the Academy of F ...

Frigyes Schulek Frigyes Schulek (19 November 1841 – 5 September 1919) was a Hungarian architect,

Imre Steindl Imre Ferenc Károly Steindl (29 October 1839 – 31 August 1902) was a Hungarian architect. Steindl (sometimes called in German ''Emerich Steindl'' or ''Emmerich Steindl'') was the designer of the Hungarian Parliament Building, an associate pr ...

, and Karl Troll. A bronze statue of him has been placed before the town-hall of Vienna. His son Heinrich was overseer at the building of the cathedral of Frankfurt and afterwards professor of medieval architecture in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

. He died in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, aged 65.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Friedrich von 1825 births 1891 deaths People from Ostalbkreis Austrian people of German descent Austrian Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism Gothic Revival architects Academics of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) 19th-century Austrian architects