Offenhausen Parish Church (Upper Austria)
The Roman Catholic parish church Offenhausen is located in Offenhausen in the market town of Offenhausen in the Wels-Land district in Upper Austria . The church, consecrated to St. Stephen , belongs to the Gaspoltshofen dean's office in the Linz diocese . The church and the former cemetery area are under monument protection .
Building history
The building of the church with its now 36 meter high church tower can no longer be clearly defined historically. The patronage of Saint Stephen indicates that the parish was founded in Passau . A first church is likely to have been built in Offenhausen around the year 1000. Offenhausen was first mentioned in writing as a separate parish in 1359. The two side chapels (built in 1428 and 1443 respectively) were obviously not included in the original church plan, otherwise they would not have been added at the rear but at the front. So it seems certain that the main construction of a Gothic church building dates back far back to 1428.
In 1620 - during the Thirty Years' War - the old parish church and with it a large part of the neighboring houses of the market was destroyed by the army of the Catholic League . In 1660 the building, which had been restored, fell victim to another fire. By 1687 the church was rebuilt in its present form and equipped with new altars. On July 13th of the same year it was inaugurated by the auxiliary bishop of Passau, Johann Maximus Steiner von Pleyfelden.
In the Austrian art topography , St. Stephanus is referred to as “perhaps the most important market church in Upper Austria in Renaissance style”. The elaborate roof structure of the church is a technical cultural monument. It was probably built after the church fire in 1620.
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In 1860, the first extensive restoration of the parish church was carried out under Pastor Franz Bogner. During this time, the choir stairs inside the church were removed and a stairway to the tower and the gallery church was built from the outside. The high altar was also renovated and several frills on the pillars were removed.
In 1891 the sacristy and the oratory above were rebuilt. In 1928/29 the onion of the church tower was renewed. Previously covered with larch shingles, the shape of the dome has now been clad with copper sheet.
Between 1964 and 1970 Pastor Anton Fellner carried out a total exterior and interior renovation of the parish church. The church roof was re-covered with Eternit, the tower and the church outer walls were newly plastered and colored and the "camouflage paint" that had been applied during the Second World War to protect against bombing attacks was removed.
The renewal of the liturgy by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) brought some changes to the interior design of the parish church. In 1965/66 the canteen of the high altar was pushed into the high altar and the people's altar was set up, on which the priest now turned to the people St. Mass celebrated. The "food grid" was removed, the pulpit remained in its old place, but is no longer used. Since then, the side chapels have been used to celebrate weekday services and baptism, as well as for confession and debate.
In 2012/13 a major exterior renovation and facade renewal as well as a renovation of the tower cross took place. The celebratory tower cross construction took place on September 1, 2013.
Furnishing
The interior of the church (28 meters long, 13 meters wide and 13 meters high) has received a harmonious, baroque ensemble through the main and two side altars in cartilage style. The high altar picture from 1754 shows the stoning of St. Stephen and comes from the hand of the famous Bartolomeo Altomonte .
On both sides of the high altar are larger than life statues of St. Joseph and St. Anthony of Padua. A smaller picture in the upper part of the altar represents St. Martyr Sebastian. There are also statues of St. John the Baptist and St. Anna. Two angels rest on vaults and the top of the altar is crowned by the statue of the parish patron, St. Deacon Stephen. The tabernacle, designed in 1769 in the Rococo style, is surrounded by worshiping angels.
At the end of the relatively small presbytery there are two side altars. The right-hand Marian altar is no doubt from the creator of the high altar. The altarpiece shows the miraculous image "Maria-Hilf" surrounded by angels. The Holy Family is shown in the smaller field. The two main statues on the sides of the altarpiece show two holy nuns, St. Clare and St. Theresia of Avila. Two holy martyrs, St. Barbara and St. Apollonia, rest over the capitals of the columns. At the top of the altar stands St. Michael with a raised sword.
The altarpiece on the cross altar seems to be quite old. In the upper field of the altar you can see Joachim, Anna and Maria. The statues of St. George and St. Florian watch on the side of St. Cross, two angels sit at the heads of Christ and St. Guardian angel holds his protégé by the hand at the highest point of the altar.
The rococo-style pulpit dates from 1769. Opposite the pulpit on the north wall of the nave, you can see a statue of St. John of Nepomuk (ca.1740). In front of it is the grave monument of Jörg von Perkheim, who died on November 16, 1559. It shows the lord of the castle of Würting in a kneeling position, standing in front of him is John the Baptist, who points to the crucified Christ.
The church in Offenhausen is also the resting place of other nobles from the families of the Perkheimer, Seeauer and other noble families as well as many deceased pastors. There are many tombs across the width of the church under the steps leading up to the presbytery and under the steps of the two side altars. The gravestones, which were often used as pavement, are mostly blurred and can no longer be read. When a new pavement was laid in the church in 1904, some of them were lifted out and placed in the church's outer wall.
In the presbytery on the left are the sacristy and the oratory of the Würting lordship . The lords of the castle celebrated the services from this room. Two gallery churches rest above the entrance. The Way of the Cross is attached to the parapet of the lower gallery, the upper one carries the organ.
organ
The old organ was built in 1757. In 1914 the owner of the Würting Castle, Countess Alberti, donated a new organ. The baroque organ case was left in place because of its unique beauty; the carved coat of arms of the donor was attached in place of the clock face. The new pneumatic two-manual cone chest organ has ten stops . It comes from the workshop of master organ builder Leopold Breinbauer in Ottensheim. In 1983 the organ was thoroughly renovated by the Hartig company from Pregarten.
Peal
During the great church fire in 1620, all the bells that hung in the tower were destroyed. Due to the religious unrest at that time, the first new bell could not be purchased until 1652. Until the First World War , the parish church bell consisted of five bells. The oldest, the "confessional or Stephani bell" from 1652, is dedicated to St. Stephen , the parish patron. The other four bells were from the period between 1658 and 1775. In 1882 and 1894 two of these bells burst and were replaced by new ones. During the First World War, these four bells had to be delivered in order to make weapons from their material.
Due to the economically difficult time after the First World War, it was only possible to purchase a new bell in 1936 under Pastor Martin Wimmer. Only six years later, on January 2nd, 1942, the bells had to be removed again because the material was needed for the Second World War. Only one of the bells purchased in 1936 was found intact in the Hamburg-Ilsenburg metal storage facility in 1948 and brought back to Offenhausen. The old Stephani bell survived both world wars unscathed and is still rung by hand as a death bell for deaths in the parish. On Palm Sunday, April 10, 1949, there was another consecration of bells under Pastor Anton Fellner. The "homecoming bell" and three new bells from the Pfundner bell foundry in Vienna could be raised in the church tower to the great joy of the whole population. At that time, an electric bell was also purchased. The current fully electric bell of the parish church consists of four bells: the "Big Bell" (1102 kg), the "Marienglocke" (579 kg), the "Homecoming Bell" (443 kg) and the "Floriani Bell" (245 kg) kg).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ History of the Principality of Passau: History from the 14th Century to Secularization, Volume 2 , Johann Nepomuk Buchinger , Munich 1824
- ↑ Austrian Art Topography, Volume 34, A. Schroll 1959.
Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 21 ″ N , 13 ° 50 ′ 10 ″ E