Michelstetten Parish Church
.JPG)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Veit in Michelstetten (municipality of Asparn an der Zaya , Lower Austria ) is a Romanesque fortified church that is built on a hill in the west of the village.
It is consecrated to St. Vitus and belongs to the Ernstbrunn deanery .
history
The parish was founded in 1128 by Ernst I. von Hohenburg-Wildberg. It was probably during this time that a Carolingian tower castle, which had served as a hostel for pilgrims before the parish was founded, was converted into a nave. Ottokar II Přemysl approved the transfer of the patronage to the Johanniter von Mailberg in 1269 , who kept it until 1288. During this time the tower was built on the east side, on which the bell storey was added in the 16th century. At the end of the 13th century, the frescoes inside the church were created, which were discovered and exposed during a restoration in 1956.
From 1571 to 1627 the church was Protestant . After the Counter Reformation , the parish was rebuilt in 1760/61.
Around 1720 the top floor of the nave was demolished; the original wooden beam ceiling was replaced by a barrel vault with a gable roof. At the same time, the two side chapels were built, the lower windows of the nave were broken through and today's entrance was built on the west side.
architecture
Church building
.JPG)
The nave is a high ashlar structure under a steep gable roof , with a defensive floor with two loopholes in the south wall above the church, which served as a pilgrims' hostel. It is believed that there was another floor above that was removed in the 13th century when the tower was built. In the north and south walls of the nave there is a small bricked-up early Gothic window. The west facade is characterized by the high triangular gable . In the middle of the west facade sit two corbels and above them the walled up presumably earlier entrance to the tower castle.
In the north and south of the nave, round closed chapels with pilaster strips are attached.
The two lower floors of the massive choir tower are made of ashlar masonry, the upper floors of small-scale ashlar and quarry stone masonry. The bell storey with coupled arched windows was added in the 16th century; Quarter-round pinnacles sit at the corners of the tower, the eight-sided pyramid helmet is made of bricks. There are loopholes on three floors. In the west, the apse with shingle roof and three Romanesque windows adjoins the tower . A single-storey late medieval building for the sacristy is added to the south wall of the tower.
A large Romanesque tombstone is walled into the facade.
Interior
The two-bay nave has a groined vault from the first half of the 17th century instead of the original flat ceiling. In the west is the organ gallery above a transverse barrel. A pointed triumphal arch leads to the choir. The choir square has a ribbed vault from the third third of the 13th century; the disc-shaped keystone shows the Lamb of God in relief . In the side walls of the choir there is a five-part session , which are designed as three-pass niches with free-standing round columns (two niches in the south wall were destroyed by the later access to the sacristy). There are remains of painting in the vault and on the seating niches. A retracted round arched triumphal arch leads to the apse.
The apse is decorated with significant frescoes in the spiked style from the late 13th century. In the apse calotte there is a representation of the Majestas Domini , surrounded by the four apocalyptic animals, in the window reveals two female saints, and under the window sills a palmette frieze. The twelve apostles are arranged in pairs on the reveal of the triumphal arch .
In the third quarter of the 20th century, the people's altar was built as a free-standing block altar, partly using Romanesque blocks.
The right chapel is furnished with a neo-Gothic carved altar with statues of Saints Modestus , Vitus and Crescentia , the left with a picture frame retable from the beginning of the 18th century with reliquary pyramids from 1730. The pulpit dates from the beginning of the 17th century. The organ case was created in 1761, the work in 1931 by Johann M. Kauffmann . The baptismal font was built in the 17th century. The heraldic tombstone of Anna von der Weitenmüln (1473) and the crypt slab of Franz von Gera and his three wives (1587) are walled into the wall.
Churchyard
The churchyard that surrounds the church is surrounded by the early medieval, partially supplemented cemetery wall. In the northwest corner there is a single-storey building made of ashlar masonry, which is probably the rest of a bastion .
literature
- Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch - Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs - Niederösterreich north of the Danube. 2nd unchanged edition. Berger Verlag, Horn / Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85028-395-3 .
- Leiser Bote, December 2009 (accessed January 25, 2013; PDF; 345 kB)
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 35 ′ 2 " N , 16 ° 25 ′ 32" E