This church, built in the second half of the 18th century, was originally the orphanage church of the orphanage that used to be here. The church, built by Leopold Grossmann based on plans by Thaddäus Karner, was inaugurated on December 7, 1768: in the presence of Maria Theresia and Joseph II. the then twelve-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted his “Orphanage Mass” (KV 139), written for this occasion. The orphanage was located here until 1785 and then moved to Boltzmanngasse. Maria Theresa bought the orphanage property here in 1761. The church was built between the elongated buildings that belonged to the orphanage and, with its simple and unfinished facade, is a monument of the Josephine style. Two commemorative plaques next to the entrance refer to important events: one commemorates the appearance of Mozart in 1768, the second to the “elevation of this church to a parish church on the occasion of the new parish division”. The date given is April 28, 1783.

In contrast to the rather nondescript exterior, the beauty of the interior is surprising. The church has a single nave, the side aisles have been transformed into corridors with galleries above them, the nave ends in a basket arch against the presbytery. The walls of the church are divided by pilasters, each pilaster has a large statue of a saint. The entire decoration of the church already points to the Josephine classicism, Rococo decorations are no longer to be found. First of all, the high altar painting “Birth of the Virgin Mary” should be mentioned, which was wrongly attributed to Franz Anton Maulbertsch. However, this is not the case, the picture is a work by Franz Zoller. (In addition to this high altar painting, the artist created works for the Liechtental parish church and for some churches outside Vienna.) Of the other works of art that this house of worship contains, the painting “Mary and John holding Christ’s corpse” should be highlighted, a picture from the family’s private collection Mautner-Markhof, but also the picture “Maria holds the dead Christ” which adorns the so-called “Verse Altar”. Also worth mentioning is the so-called “Chaos Foundation Altar”, named after the scholar Freiherr von Chaos, the founder of the “Chaos Orphanage”, which was merged with the Rennweg Orphanage in 1767. The statue erected here, a copy of the Mariazell Mother of God, came to the church on Rennweg after a long period of wandering. The altarpiece of this side altar, St. Depicting Theresia is a major work by Carl Auerbach. A chasuble made from Marie Antoinette’s wedding dress is kept in the sacristy of the church, and in a small glass case is the skull of the Jesuit Father Ignaz Parhammer, the Viennese “child general”, whose merit was, among other things, the building of this church. He was director of the Theresian orphanage and the first pastor of the church since 1783.