The Votive Church (Votivkirche) nearby the University of Vienna is one of the most important neo-Gothic religious architectural sites in the world. The church is the second highest sacral building in Vienna, its steeples are 99 metres high. 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. - 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".