Parish Church Falkenstein (Lower Austria)
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The Roman Catholic parish church in Falkenstein ( patronage : St. James the Elder ) is an early Baroque hall church facing west with a south-east tower . She stands, dominant and in an elevated position, northwest of the town center in front of the castle of Falkenstein in Lower Austria . The parish is part of the Dean's Office Poysdorf in the Vicariate under the Manhartsberg and is in accordance with Regulation of the Federal Monuments Office under monument protection .
Parish history
The parish was built around the year 1050 together with Falkenstein Castle and was first mentioned together with Falkenstein Castle in 1120/22 in connection with Klosterneuburg Abbey. In 1135 it was named as one of 13 Babenberg's own parishes , to which around 20 parishes in the area belonged.
At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries it became necessary to improve the economic position of the Kremsmünster Abbey , so that Abbot Johannes I Schrein (1505–1524) felt compelled to ask King Maximilian I to leave the monastery after he took office to bestow a parish with a wine toe . On March 5, 1506, Maximilian I left the Falkenstein parish to the monastery in exchange for the patronage rights over the Wels parish. The exchange of the two parishes, of which Falkenstein was secular and the parish Wels spiritual patronage, as well as the desired full incorporation of Falkenstein, required the conversion of the patronage rights and thus the consent of the Vatican . In a bull dated November 27, 1506, Pope Julius II incorporated Falkenstein into Kremsmünster Abbey.
However, it soon turned out that the material expectations of the monastery could not be met. This and the physical distance meant that Kremsmünster tried to get rid of the parish again. Abbot Erhard Voit (1571–1588) sent a petition to Emperor Rudolf II on September 12, 1577 to approve the possible sale of Falkenstein and to send a commission to Falkenstein to initiate the sale. The emperor complied with this request and in 1578 negotiations began with Hans Freiherr von Trautson , the owner of the Falkenstein estate. They dragged on for three years due to significant differences in the purchase price, until the purchase contract was finally signed on October 23, 1581 and the Falkenstein-Poysdorf estate came back into the possession of the parish.
Under Emperor Joseph II , branch communities were gradually separated from the mother parish until the last seven parishes were separated from Falkenstein on May 1, 1784.
To the north of the parish church, on the site of today's cemetery, there were two other churches until the end of the 18th century: the Georgskirche and the Frauen- or Kreuzkirche , which was located where the family crypt of the Counts of Falkenstein now stands. Both churches no longer exist. The women's or cruciform church was demolished on the orders of Emperor Joseph II in 1789. Only remnants of the formerly fortified cemetery wall are preserved in the southwest.
Currently (2014) the parish belongs to the Poysbrunn Parish Association , from where it is looked after.
Building history
Around the year 1670, the early baroque parish church in its current form was built in part using medieval masonry from a previous building from the middle of the 13th century after a construction period of thirteen years . From this previous building, the southeast tower with Romanesque basement and Gothic upper storey as well as Gothic buttresses on the choir and partly on the nave have been preserved.
The building material for the church building was provided by the church patron; the building costs of ten thousand guilders were raised through an annual must collection in Falkenstein and the subsidiary communities. The new church was consecrated on August 7, 1678. In 1744, a fire destroyed the originally steeper and higher roof of the tower.
Building description
Outside
facade
An outside staircase with damming of Saints Rochus and Rosalia from the end of the 17th century leads to the high, early baroque east facade, the main floor of which is divided by double Doric pilasters and cranked cornices . A mighty three-storey gable structure rises above a continuous entablature , the structure of which is given by Ionic and Corinthian pilasters and entablature. Statues of the Twelve Apostles are located in the arched niches of the gable floors and on the side volutes . The top of the gable is crowned by a statue of Christ .
Ionic pilasters frame the rectangular portal, in the lintel of which there is an alliance coat of arms of the patron saint Count Paul Sixtus II of Trautson (1633–1678) and his wife Maria Katharina von Königsegg-Aulendorf (1640–1679) as well as the inscription “1615 - 1670”. In the blasted gable of the portal is a stone sculpture of the Madonna and Child . A building inscription from 1670 is attached above a bezel window on the first floor in the gable structure.
Longhouse
The nave extends under steep pitched roofs with a retracted choir and rounded end in the west and a richly structured east facade. The choir receives its light through arched windows in the deep reveal . On the enclosing walls in the north and south there are high buttresses , which are placed on plinths and partly come from the medieval predecessor building. Gothic ashlar masonry was uncovered on the southwest buttress . The buttresses are connected by deep arcades , which start about two thirds of the height of the pillars and are closed off by shed roofs. There are two extensions on the north facade of the nave.
tower
The lower three storeys of the mighty 37 meter high former defense tower in the southeast of the nave come from the previous building from the 13th century. You have Ortsteingliederung and are provided with slotted and rectangular windows. The lower storeys with a square floor plan merge with sloping roof gussets into the octagonal sound storey , which probably dates from the 15th century, is provided with pointed-arched tracery windows and is closed off by an eight-sided tent roof. There are tower clocks below the tracery windows. A staircase with a four-flight staircase around a central pillar was added to the east side of the tower and aligned with the early baroque facade of the nave by means of a pilaster structure. The staircase has key notches and is closed by a pent roof that attaches to the south facade of the nave.
Inside
The floor of the church was paved with large slabs of Kelheim limestone in 1773 .
The four-bay nave with a narrow gallery in the east is closed off to the west by a round-arched triumphal arch , which forms the transition to the two-bay choir with a circular closure.
The three-axis gallery rests on two Tuscan columns above a groin vault from the 17th century and is accessed by a spiral staircase at the northeast corner.
On both sides of the nave there are arched niches between pillars with pilasters in front of them. The stitch cap vault is divided into rectangular and circular shapes in a cassette shape with stucco ridges . The triumphal arch is equipped with a stucco reveal.
The choir is closed off by a barrel vault with stitch caps over belt arches on pilasters. On the ceiling is a stuccoed mirror field with foliage and bead decoration .
The ceiling of the sacristy dates from the third quarter of the 17th century and is made in the shape of the choir vault.
The interior of the tower and its equipment as a defense and salvage tower have been preserved. The former sacristy on the ground floor is closed off by Gothic rib vaults on relief consoles from the 14th century. The first floor was originally only accessible via a ladder through a preserved Romanesque door and served as a treasury for storing valuables and war implements.
Furnishing
Choir
The ceiling paintings date from 1909 and depict Saints Klemens Maria Hofbauer and Leopold as well as the Holy Trinity .
The high altar consists of a neo-baroque double columned retable with straight beams and was donated by the Vrints family in 1862 , according to an attached chronogram . The altarpiece shows St. James as a pilgrim and the top picture from the third quarter of the 17th century shows the Holy Trinity in three human figures. The high altar is flanked by carved figures of Saints Peter and Paul .
The glass windows are labeled "1902" and "1931" and were made according to designs by Karl Holey .
The southern choir stalls were made in 1770, the northern one dates from the 19th century.
Longhouse
The ceiling paintings date from 1909 and show the four evangelists in the middle, the twelve apostles in oval pictures.
The interior of the nave consists of 45 knee benches from 1773, which are made and carved from oak.
The neo-Gothic side altars on both sides of the triumphal arch, “Heart of Jesus” (left) and “Heart of Mary” (right), date from 1867, two side altars in the large side niches, “Maria Lourdes” (left) and “Saint Josef ”(right) was created in 1892.
On the right side of the nave is the pulpit from the third quarter of the 18th century. A carved figure of St. James is attached to the sound cover . Opposite is a later reworked crucifix from the beginning of the 16th century, including a baroque console statue of Mater Dolorosa from the 18th century.
On the first floor of the tower there is a statue of a Gothic Madonna and Child made of sandstone from around 1400, which was restored in 1990. A crucifix from around 1700 hangs in the northern vestibule.
Chandeliers from 1830, two baroque canvas paintings of the Holy Family from the 18th century and a copy of a Mariahilf picture from the 18th century complete the equipment.
organ
The organ from 1914 comes from the workshop of Johann M. Kauffmann from Vienna .
Bells
The Salve Regina - peal was founded in 1947/48 by Josef Pfundner poured into Vienna and funded with donations from the faithful. It consists of four bronze bells with a total weight of 1419 kg , which are consecrated to Saints James , Florian and Urban as well as to Our Lady .
literature
- Dehio Lower Austria north of the Danube 1990 , Falkenstein, parish church hl. James d. Ä., Pp. 209/210.
- "Representation of the Archduchy of Austria under the Ens" by Friedrich Freiherr von Schweickhardt, Vienna 1833, Volume 1, Part 4, p. 322.
Web links
- Falkenstein parish website accessed on May 13, 2014
- Falkenstein Parish Church from www.waymarking.com accessed on May 13, 2014
- Falkenstein parish church on the website of the market town of Falkenstein accessed on May 13, 2014
Remarks
- ↑ The inscription reads: "This house of God was built through the pious donations of the faithful".
- ↑ Falkenstein Castle has been owned by this family since 1850.
Individual evidence
- ^ Lower Austria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento of May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) . Federal Monuments Office , as of June 26, 2015 (PDF).
- ^ History of the parish Falkenstein on the parish website ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on May 13, 2014.
- ^ Rudolf Zinnhobler : The affiliation of Falkenstein to the association of the Kremsmünster parishes (1506–1581). In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Year 109, Linz 1964, pp. 284–318 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ; accessed on May 13, 2014).
- ↑ a b c d e Dehio p. 209.
- ↑ a b c d e f Documents from the parish archive in Falkenstein.
- ↑ a b c Dehio p. 210.
Coordinates: 48 ° 43 '22.1 " N , 16 ° 35' 5.3" E