St. Canisius's Church, Vienna

The Canisiuskirche is a Roman Catholic parish church in Vienna's 9th district Alsergrund and, with an 85-metre spire, the second-tallest neo-Gothic church in the city after the Votivkirche. It was built at the end of the nineteenth century to designs by Gustav Ritter von Neumann in strict Historicism and consecrated in 1903 in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph, who firmly backed the Christian Social movement in the district. The church is dedicated to Peter Canisius, the Dutch-born Jesuit and first German-speaking Doctor of the Church. Today the slender west tower still anchors the streetscape of Lustkandlgasse and the building enjoys monument protection. Inside, coloured stained glass and dark oak pews contrast with the pale sandstone of the west front.