Kirche am Steinhof: main façade

Wagner’s late projects from 1903 radically continued the transformation of the work of Schinkel, Van der N�ll 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 fa�ade, 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.