Evangelical Church in Simmering

The Evangelical church with a community hall and youth center is located on a small rectangular plot (20x24m) in the eleventh district on the southeastern edge of Vienna. It is the jubilee hundredth church built in Vienna since the end of World War II. The Simmering parish falls under the Viennese Evangelical superintendency, which was also established only after the war. The design emerged from a competition held in 1952, where architect Roland Rainer won with his design for a model chapel. Construction began ten years later and lasted for 17 months. During his lifetime, Roland Rainer managed to complete a total of five sacred buildings, with the church in Simmering being his first and only one within Vienna.
Simmering was a bustling industrial area until the middle of the last century, which is why Rainer decided to create a small square atrium with a tree in the center before the entrance to the church. Similarly, behind the altar, a view opens up into a small garden through a long horizontal window, which aims to create the most civilian feel possible. All interior furnishings are made of spruce wood without further surface treatments. The bricks filling the reinforced concrete skeleton remain unplastered and are merely covered with a lime coating. The bare walls of hollow bricks also contribute to improving the acoustics within the church hall. The author's goal was not to "represent through expensive materials" or "outwardly emphasize the sacred character", but rather to "create a simple cultivated object that behaves modestly and offers a dignified place for ceremonies."
Since 2018, services have been led here by Czech pastor Anna Kampl, who comes from Nová Paka and received her theological education at Charles University in Prague.