newitalianblood

The St. Mary’s Visitation Parish church was built in 1640 as a Capuchin monastic church. In the 1970ies, an annex was added to the eastern side of the building. Between the old and the new structure, two steel uprights were installed to carry the span of the aperture. Originating in the old nave, an elaborate ascent flows into the extension, connecting the two rooms with each other and creating a new joint focal point: the sanctuary. The ensemble proceeds to the rear of the sanctuary, forming the staircase for the choir. Artist Franz Messner created liturgical objects of dark basalt rock, spiraling up and unfolding like blossoms as a reaction to the two major axes. By removing the steel beams the view on the joint sanctuary is unburdened and both rooms merge into a whole. The dark expansion joints in the newly covered floor form a web throughout the church, carrying on the alignment of the stairway ensemble. Photo: meraner-hauser.com