The Döbling Parish Church (Döblinger Pfarrkirche) is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish church in the suburb of

Oberdöbling Oberdöbling (Central Bavarian: ''Obadöbling'') was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden. Geography Oberdöbling lies in the south of ...

in the 19th district of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th Districts of Vienna, district in the city of Vienna, Austria (). It is located in the north of Vienna, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populated urban areas with many residential bui ...

History

The first reference to a church in Döbling dates from 1267, when a ''Ecclesia in Tobelico'' (church in Döbling) was mentioned in an official document, but it is not known where this church stood. The continuous existence of a church can be proven from the 15th century, as the names of the Döbling parish priests have been recorded since that time. The Döbling Parish Church was destroyed by

Matthias Corvinus of Hungary Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and adopted the tit ...

in the 15th century, but it was quickly rebuilt. In 1640, the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Döbling was dissolved and the area was allocated to the parish of

Währing Währing () is the 18th Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna and lies in northwestern Vienna on the edge of the Vienna Woods. It was formed in 1892 from the unification of the older suburbs of Währing, Weinhaus, Gersthof, Pötzleinsdorf, Neus ...

. The church was destroyed for a second time during the second siege of Vienna in 1683; the remains were shored up but not rebuilt. The Johann-von-Nepomuk-Kapelle in the Döblinger Hauptstraße was used as a replacement until the parish church was restored following emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

’s reform of the parishes and the restoration of Döbling to the status of an independent parish. The church however quickly proved to be too small. It was rebuilt between 1826 and 1828 in line with designs drawn up by Josef Reininger and dedicated to

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

. The church features a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

main room; its temple-like appearance is typical for the period. The church’s three most prominent artistic features are the picture on the altar ''Bekehrung des heiligen Paulus'' (''The conversion of Saint Paul'') by Josef Schönmann (1829), the pictures on the side altars, which these are the work of J. Kreßler, the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

, which dates from the early 19th century, and a wooden statue of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

dating from the 18th century.

References

* Christine Klusacek, Kurt Stimmer: ''Döbling. Vom Gürtel zu den Weinbergen''. Wien 1988, , S. 161 f.

External links

Pfarre Döbling – St. Paul

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobling Parish Church Roman Catholic churches in Vienna Buildings and structures in Döbling