The Votivkirche in Vienna 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 O'Donell 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 basically saved his life. Count O'Donell struck Libényi down with his sabre. 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 Haide.

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 Votivgabe (a thank-you present to God) for the rescue of Franz Joseph.
The church plans were established in an architectural competition in April 1854. 75 projects from the Austrian empire, German lands, England, and France were submitted. Original plans included to include the neighbouring Allgemeines Krankenhaus and create a campus fashioned after the plans of Oxford and Cambridge University. Another plan was to create a national cathedral for all the people of the empire. However because of spiralling costs and the changing political situation, this plan had to be downsized. The jury choose the project of Heinrich von Ferstel, who, at the time, was only 26. He choose to built the cathedral in the neo-gothic style, borrowing heavily from the architecture of gothic French cathedrals. Construction began in 1856, and it was dedicated twenty-six years later on April 24, 1879, the occasion of the silver jubilee of the royal couple.