Parish Church Weissenalbern
The Roman Catholic parish church Weißenalbern is located in Weißenalbern in the market town of Kirchberg am Walde in Lower Austria . The parish church of St. John the Baptist belongs to the deanery Gmünd in the diocese of St. Pölten . The church is a listed building .
history
A parish was mentioned in a document in the 14th century. The originally Romanesque church, presumably with a choir tower, was rebuilt in Gothic style after a Hussite invasion in 1427 (?). Baroque additions were made after 1690 and 1733. There was a fire in 1694. Restorations took place in 1930 and 1970.
architecture
- Church exterior
The church is raised in the west of Weißenalbern next to the former Rauhenstein fortress . The church, which is essentially Romanesque, has been changed into a Gothic hall church. The simple, essentially Romanesque nave has baroque arched windows. The retracted choir has a semicircular apse from the 13th century with walled-up pointed arched windows in the apex and four powerful buttresses and baroque flat arched windows. An oratorio was added to the north side of the choir in 1930. A sacristy is built on the south side. An extension in the south has a beveled pointed arch portal. The baroque west tower was raised after the fire (of 1694) in 1714 and has a rusticated arched portal and above it a figural niche and arched sound windows and an onion helmet from the end of the 18th century.
- Church interior
The originally flat-roofed Romanesque hall was converted into a three-aisled, four-bay hall in the first half of the 15th century. Remnants of a cycle of a Romanesque wall painting with a flower frieze have been preserved. The ribbed vault with round keystones rests on octagonal supports, which have approaches for gallery arches in the west. The organ gallery, arched with ribs, stands on low octagonal pillars. The round-arched triumphal arch has the width of the central nave and a Romanesque cornice. The choir square has an early Gothic, domed cross-ribbed vault with a chamfered round keystone depicting the head of John the Baptist. The south-facing portal to the sacristy is from the 2nd quarter of the 18th century. In the north there is an oratorio that was renewed in 1930. The semicircular apse is clad in baroque style and has a marbled arch under a baroque stucco cartouche and shows a stucco ornament from around 1730 and marbled window frames.
There are three Romanesque tombstones with crossed bars in the church floor.
Furnishing
The baroque high altar with a marbled pilaster architecture stands in the apse curve and shows the altar sheet John the Baptist by the painter Johann Georg Schmidt (1733). The free-standing tabernacle is flanked by busts of Peter and Paul (1736). The baroque side altars bear the figure of Mary and Child from the 2nd half of the 17th century to the north and the altar sheet Martyrium of Johannes Nepomuk from the 2nd quarter of the 18th century by Johann Georg Schmidt in a framing stucco forehand to the south. The pulpit was built around 1800.
Rectory
The rectory in the south of the parish church was renewed after a fire in 1694. The facade was designed at the end of the 18th century. There was a fire in 1865. In 2012 the building envelope was renovated. Specifically, the roof was re-covered, the windows replaced and the facade renewed. Only a few renovations were carried out inside.
literature
- The art monuments of Austria. Dehio Lower Austria north of the Danube 1990 . Weißenalbern, parish church St. John the Baptist, rectory south of the church, pp. 1253–1254.
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 42 ′ 43 " N , 15 ° 3 ′ 59.1" E