The Votive Church (German: Votivkirche) in Vienna, Austria, is one of the
most important neo-Gothic religious architectural sites in the world.
Located on Ringstraße in the district of Alsergrund close to the University
of Vienna, the origin of the church has an unusual history derived from a
knife-attack on Emperor Franz Joseph by Hungarian nationalist János Libényi. The
emperor was taking a stroll with one of his officers Count Maximilian Karl
Lamoral O'Donnell von Tyrconnell on a city-bastion, when Libényi approached him.
He immediately struck the emperor from behind with a knife straight at the neck.
Franz Joseph almost always wore a uniform, which had a high collar that almost
completely enclosed the neck. It so happened that the collar of his uniform was
made out of very sturdy material. Even though Franz Joseph was wounded and
bleeding, this collar saved his life. Count O'Donnell struck Libényi down with
his sabre.[3] O'Donnell, hitherto a count only by virtue of his Irish nobility,
was thereafter made a Count of the Habsburg Empire, conferred with the
Commander's Cross of the Royal Order of Leopold, and his customary O'Donnell
arms were augmented by the initials and shield of the ducal House of Austria,
with additionally the double-headed eagle of the Empire. These arms are
emblazoned on the portico of no. 2 Mirabel Platz in Salzburg, where O'Donell
built his residence thereafter. Another witness who happened to be nearby, the
butcher Joseph Ettenreich, quickly overwhelmed Libényi. For his deed he was
later elevated to nobility by Franz Joseph and became Joseph von Ettenreich.
Libényi was subsequently put on trial and condemned to death for attempted
regicide. He was executed on the Simmeringer Heide.
After the unsuccessful attack on February 18, 1853, Franz Joseph's brother
Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, the later emperor of Mexico, called upon the
community for donations to a new church on the site of the attack. The church
was to be a votive offering for the rescue of Franz Joseph. It was to be "a
monument of patriotism and of devotion of the people to the Imperial House".
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