Peterskirche | Vienna
On our way to Stephansdom we ran into this beautiful church right in the middle of the street, traffic and horse drawn carriages go around it on both sides. Peterskirche (Saint Peter’s Church) is a Baroque Roman Catholic parish church in Vienna. It was transferred in 1970 by the Archbishop of Vienna, Franz Cardinal König, to the priests of the Opus Dei. The medieval church had three altars, with an apse in the south instead of the normal eastern orientation. This unusual feature has triggered many discussions among experts, and it is suspected that the church was adapted from a previously secular building. The church was, and still is, surrounded by shops. The old church burned down in 1661 and was given only makeshift repairs. The decision to build a new church was taken up with the arrival of the Fraternity of the Holy Trinity of which the emperor Leopold I was a member. He had taken a vow to rebuild this church when Vienna was ravaged by the plague in 1679-1680.