Friedrich von Schmidt
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Gschwend
Gschwend is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in Ostalbkreis district....
, Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, October 22, 1825; died Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, January 23, 1891) was an architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who worked in late 19th century Vienna.
After studying at the technical high school in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
under Breymann and Mauch, he became, in 1845, one of the guild workers employed in building Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site...
, on which he worked for fifteen years. Most of the working drawings for the towers were made by Schmidt and Vincenz Statz. In 1848 he attained the rank of master-workman and in 1856 passed the state examination as architect. After becoming a Catholic in 1858, he went to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
as professor of architecture and began the restoration of the cathedral of Sant'Ambrogio
Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio is a church in Milan, northern Italy.-History:One of the most ancient churches in Milan, it was built by St. Ambrose in 379-386, in an area where numerous martyrs of the Roman persecutions had been buried. The first name of the church was in fact Basilica...
. On account of the confusion caused by the war of 1859
Second Italian War of Independence
The Second War of Italian Independence, Franco-Austrian War, Austro-Sardinian War, or Austro-Piedmontese War , was fought by Napoleon III of France and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in 1859...
he went to Vienna, where he was a professor at the academy and cathedral architect from 1862; in 1865 he received the title of chief architect, and in 1888 was ennobled by the emperor.
In the Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
style he built in Vienna the Church of St. Lazarus, the church of the White Tanners, and that of the Brigittines. He also built a school, the Akademisches Gymnasium, with a Gothic facade and the memorial building erected on the site of the amphitheatre
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
that had been destroyed by fire. The last mentioned building was in Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic architecture
Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
. A large number of small ecclesiastical and secular buildings in Austria and Germany were designed by him. His last work was the restoration of the cathedral in Pécs
Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
in Hungary. His chief fame however he gained by his restoration of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. He took down the spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
and worked on its rebuilding up to 1872.
He also designed the Town Hall or Rathaus, Vienna, with a projecting middle section which has a central tower that rises free to a height of 328 ft. and is flanked by four smaller towers. A large court and six smaller ones are enclosed by the extensive building, the wings of which end in pavilions. In building the parish church in Funfhaus
Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus
Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus is the 15th municipal District of Vienna, Austria . It is in central Vienna, west of Innere Stadt....
he even ventured to set a facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
with two towers in front of an octagonal central structure with a high cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
and a corona of chapels. His motto was to unite German force with Italian freedom. He modified the tendency to height in the German Gothic by horizontal members and introduced many modifications into the old standard of the style in the hope of attaining a more agreeable general effect. He was teacher and model to many younger architects, including Friedrich Grünanger
Friedrich Grünanger
Friedrich Grünanger was an Austro-Hungarian architect who worked primarily in Bulgaria.Born in Schäßburg in Austria-Hungary , Grünanger studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna architecture school between 1877 and 1879, under Friedrich von Schmidt...
, Frigyes Schulek
Frigyes Schulek
Frigyes Schulek was a Hungarian architect, a professor at József Technical University and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences .-Education:...
, Imre Steindl
Imre Steindl
Imre Steindl was a Hungarian architect.- Biography :He graduated at the Technical University of Budapest and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He was a teacher of the Budapest Technical University from 1869...
, and Karl Troll
Karl Troll
Karl Troll was an Austrian architect.Karl Troll was son of a carpenter from a small village in Lower Austria. The boy was sent to Vienna to learn textile printing in a vocational school. During 1886-89 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Friedrich von Schmidt...
. A bronze statue of him has been placed before the town-hall of Vienna. His son Heinrich was overseer at the building of the cathedral of Frankfurt and afterwards professor of medieval architecture in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. He also designed Vaduz Cathedral
Vaduz Cathedral
Vaduz Cathedral, or Cathedral of St. Florin , is a neo-Gothic church in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and the center of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vaduz. Originally a parish church, it has had the status of a cathedral since 1997.It was built in 1873 by Friedrich von Schmidt on the site of earlier...
and St. Joseph's Cathedral in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
.
From 1870 to 1882, he worked as chief architect on the neoromanesque Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Đakovo
Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Đakovo
The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul , the co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Đakovo-Osijek, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Đakovo, Croatia. It is sometimes referred only as the Cathedral of St. Peter....
as successor of Karl Rösner.