Alte Spitalskirche - Citykirche

Innsbruck, Tyrol

The church is located at the beginning of Maria-Theresien-Straße; a few meters further you will find the entrance to the Old Town. Its location was once outside the city gates, connected to a hospital. Thick walls separated it from the Old Town, because sick people were preferably not wanted nearby due to the risk of contagion. Today, there is no longer a namesake hospital next to the Spitalskirche. The appearance of the church has also changed. First mentioned in the 12th century, it was rebuilt around 1700 by none other than Johann Martin Gumpp the Elder, a member of the famous Innsbruck master builder dynasty. Visitors to the church will find, among other things, carved doors, stucco decorations, a baroque high altar with a painting of the Sending of the Holy Spirit by Caspar Jele (1848), polychrome stucco half-figures of apostles by Benedikt Fries (1704), the Mariahilf painting "Maria vom guten Rat" from the second half of the 17th century, and a Gothic cross on the left side altar. Most of the frescoes were destroyed in the Second World War and repainted by Hans Andre during the renovation from 1959-1962. Since October 2018, the Spitalskirche has served as the "Citykirche" and bears the name "Kirche im Herzen der Stadt" (Church in the Heart of the City). Its purpose is to enable new forms of prayer, culture, music, and art as an inviting, hospitable, and open space, and to open up ways for people of our time to encounter faith. At the same time, in terms of pastoral care for passers-by, it aims to be a place of low-threshold contact with faith and the church.