Church of the Assumption of Mary (Melk)

West view of the parish church

The parish church of the Assumption of Mary is a Roman Catholic church in the town of Melk in Lower Austria .

history

The location of the previous church of St. Peter is unknown. Around 1020 the parish was ceded by the Diocese of Passau to a St. Stephen's Church, which was presumably located to the east of Melk Abbey . At the end of the 15th century, due to the deterioration of St. Stephen's Church, the parish went to St. Mary's Church in the city, which was rebuilt by 1481. The Marienkirche went from the Diocese of Passau to the Melk Abbey in 1693. In the year 1961, the steeple was renewed in 1992 to In 1993, a renovation of the interior from 1997 to 1998, an exterior renovation.

inner space

The church is a three-aisled pillar basilica with a moderately raised central nave.

The three-aisled nave with ribbed vaults has a retracted choir with two and three-lane tracery windows and buttresses. The nave vault is supported by mighty octagonal columns that are connected by pointed arches.

The choir room in the east has a star rib vault.

Facility

The furnishings are entirely from the years 1898/99. The altar tables of the high altar and side altars were made of Tridentine marble by the master stonemason Leopold Silber from Wilten. The communion grille made of marble and iron comes from the stonemason Traxler from Häusling and the Melk master locksmith Enzmann.

The oak carved altar structures, the pulpit, the choir stalls, the baptismal font and the frames of the cross were made by the sculptor Leopold Hofer from St. Pölten. The statues and reliefs were created by the South Tyrolean family Franz Schmalzl from Ortisei in Val Gardena.

Altars

The high altar is richly decorated with carvings. The relief groups show the Adoration of the Magi and the Last Supper. In the two gilded shrines are relics of St. Koloman and St. Urban.

In the course of the renovation in 1992/93, the people's altar was assembled from old parts (including the former sideboard of the neo-Gothic furnishings). The side altars are designed as wing altars. On the left we see the Pieta surrounded by martyrs, on the right a Madonna in the midst of virgins - an angel holds the model of the parish church.

pulpit

The pulpit with rich carving shows statues of the Latin church fathers.

window

The windows were made by the Kunstanstalt für Glasmalerei Ostermann und Hartwein from Munich based on designs by Jakob Bradl in 1897 and 1898 and are characterized by their own luminosity at different times of the day. In the nave they show representations from the Lauretan litany. The renovation in 1987 regained the original intensity of the colors.

Maria-Hilf chapel

The Maria-Hilf-Chapel on the south side was built in 1684 as thanks for the salvation from the Turkish trouble. The furniture dates from 1775. The lower part of the wall structure is made of stucco marble, the upper part of wood with a marbled paint. The combination of gold, silver and copper on the capitals is remarkable. In the middle we see an image of grace from Innsbruck (also called Passau image of grace) in a gilded frame with rich glory of rays and cherub heads. During the restoration in 1988 the original condition of the chapel was restored.

organ

Organ of the parish church

The organ is a mechanical slider organ with 17 registers and 1239 pipes from the workshop of the organ builder Gregor Hradetzky from Krems and dates from 1969.

Others

In the church there is an epitaph of Mert Gastgeb (died 1503) and his wife Barbara (died 1502), created by the Danube School between 1515 and 1520 . A crib box with battlements and figures created by Jakob Bredl dates from 1904.

Exterior

tower

The porch in the west with the 55 m high tower was built in the neo-Gothic style in 1868 according to the plans of the architect Franz Schlierholz. Schlierholz took over the plans for the west facade of the Maria Hietzing parish church in Vienna, built in 1865 . The west facade merges like a gable into a square and octagonal tower top with a gable wreath and pointed helmet.

The tower clock has a purely mechanical movement, which was repaired in 1987 after a 25-year standstill. It had to be hand wound twice a week. In the course of the exterior renovation in 1998, an electric clockwork was used. The old mechanical clockwork is still preserved in the tower.

The tower has three clock faces on the north, west and south sides. They show the hours on the outer circle and the quarter hours in the smaller circle. Accordingly, the longer hand shows the hours and the shorter hand shows the quarter hours (minutes).

The church has shoulder portals on the side. The extension in the north houses the two-story sacristy under a pent roof . The portal dates from the construction time of the tower (1865), the skylights were used in the course of the exterior renovation in 1998.

The church's four bells were cast in 1955.

Mount of Olives Group

The stone Ölberggruppe (around 1500) is located between two buttresses in a round arch niche on the south side of the parish church. It is closed by a wrought iron grille. In the middle, Christ is shown kneeling before the angel. While Peter and the two other disciples are sleeping, Judas comes from behind with the henchmen. With the exception of the angel, which was renovated in the Baroque style, the figures have been preserved in their original form.