Wotruba Church, or Wotrubakirche, is a brutalist work designed by the Austrian artist and sculptor Fritz Wotruba. The architect of the church was Fritz Gerhard Mayer. It was built between 1974-1976 in Vienna on a former Nazi barrack. The former name of the building was the Church of the Most Holy Trinity. Wotruba died a year before the opening of the church and after his death, Mayer completed the building by himself.
It consists of 152 asymmetrically concrete blocks arranged in a seemingly loose way, giving the impression that they are going to fall to the ground. The weight of the blocks ranges from 1.8 to 141 tons and the highest block is 13 meters above the ground. The opening gaps are filled with undecorated windows, allowing sunrays to enter directly.
Because of the large windows, the inside of the church is warmer and more luminous. The altar, made out of artificial marble, is in the middle of the nave unlike other churches and it has matching chandeliers made of bronze.
The main aim of Wotruba was to design a building that invites people to remain and meditate calmly in the sacred atmosphere of the church, therefore, he designed a simplistic exterior as well. The facade of the building is without ornaments, signs, or decorations and it has no intentional front side.
