Weistrach parish church

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Catholic parish church hl. Stephan in Weistrach
inner space

The Roman Catholic parish church Weistrach is located in the municipality Weistrach in the district of Amstetten in Lower Austria . The parish church of St. Stephen belongs to the dean's office in Haag in the diocese of St. Pölten . The church is a listed building .

history

In a document (1082) the double parish with Behamberg ( parish church Behamberg ) in exchange for Garsten ( parish church Garsten ) went to the bishop Altmann of Passau (1015-1091).

Building history

In the course of the restoration in 1983, a Romanesque nave with a choir square was found in the parish church. In addition, foundations from the previous Gothic building were found during the excavations. However, the shape that can be found today is mainly determined by the late Gothic. Only the tower of the church including the wall mass of the building date from the Romanesque period and was only encased or enlarged in the late Gothic period. This was followed by a cautious Baroque style, which mainly related to the furnishings of the parish church. Major changes took place in 19th century historicism. The nave was extended by one and a half yokes from 1866 to 1868 by Karl Lußmann. Other changes were made to the exterior. This included adjusting the buttresses, the windows and the sill as well as redesigning the westwork. Otherwise, the current structure, especially in the interior of the nave and in the exterior of the choir (including the central late Gothic choir window), dates from the late Gothic period. The tower was demolished in 1893 and rebuilt by Franz Pichlwanger with a new pointed helmet, which replaced the baroque predecessor.

architecture

The late Gothic hall church has neo-Gothic additions and extensions. The exterior of the church is determined today by its neo-Gothic shape. The building is uniformly plastered, has a gable roof and is structured by stepped buttresses with two-lane tracery windows in between.

The church building is a three-aisled hall longhouse with a retracted choir . In the choir of the church, a building motif, the so-called quarter circle cassette, which was shaped and further developed by the Steyr construction works, is used. The choir has two bays and has a 3/10 choir closure. A more common 5/8 end of the choir was mistakenly mentioned several times. In fact, there are three choir walls that would make a decagon. The choir vault has a rib system in which rectangular cassettes with spherical diamond inclusions were used. The nave consists of a three-aisled hall and is lit from the side aisles. The vault rests on octagonal, fluted pillars. These in turn have star-shaped, octagonal bases. The form of the capital does not seem to be a structure of its own, but appears to us as a throat form that has been cut out of the pillar. The basic structure of the vault consists of penetrating barrels, which were provided with arched ribs on the resulting ridges. It is a loop rib vault, which has triple grooved ribs. The three ships of equal height were designed with a flame-like, intertwined system of curved ribs. The nave is seen in connection with Benedikt Ried and has Bohemian influences. The Vladislav Hall, which was built between 1493 and 1502 in Prague Castle, is considered by many to be the initial spark for the complicated vaulted forms of the late Gothic, especially for the loop rib configurations. This form of increased dynamism also arrives a little late in Austria, with examples in Freistadt, Königswiesen and Weistrach. These loop rib shapes are widespread throughout Europe, while the aforementioned cassettes with diamond inclusions, which occur in the choir of Weistrach, can only be found in connection with Steyr and the so-called quarter drawer.

Dating

A dating frame between 1500 and 1525 was accepted very early in research. In the dating discussion there are two research groups: The first group starts the choir much earlier than the nave. The second group sees a relationship between the choir and the nave. Current research has shown that, as already stated in the Dehio Niederösterreich of 2003, there is a dependency and close relationship between the choir and the nave. This led to a date that sees the beginning of the choir building around 1510 or a little earlier. The completion of the choir is assumed around 1515. The nave was begun around 1515 and is still dated around 1520 (as in the older literature). The dating results were obtained through stylistic comparisons, mainly based on the shape of the vaults. The two temporal names refer to the completion of the respective component. The time around 1520 is to be understood as the overall completion date of the parish church in Weistrach. By 1520 all work, including the exterior design, was completed.

Art historical classification

A real building boom took place in the area around Steyr at the transition from the 15th to the 16th century. There were stylistic manifestations that culminated in the autonomy of the ceiling. The parish church of Weistrach was honored especially in the 19th century and in research on the Danube School with the exhibition in St. Florian and Linz in 1965. It is considered the main work in the architecture of the Danube School. The church was often compared with the folds of the Danubian sculpture and shows a particular highlight in the dynamization of stone. The dynamic power was praised, which can no longer be surpassed even internationally. The vault becomes independent and, as can be seen from the ribs in front of the triumphal arch, hangs freely in the room. The vaults' autonomy exceeded everything that was known up to then, and the final phase of late Gothic architecture was reached.

literature

  • Günter Brucher: Gothic architecture in Austria . Salzburg / Vienna 1990.
  • Dehio - Manual: The monuments in Austria, Lower Austria south of the Danube part 2 M to Z . Horn / Vienna 2003
  • Alfred Fischeneder: The parish church in Weistrach as a work at the transition from late Gothic to Renaissance in the area around Steyr - architectural-historical studies (Dipl.). Vienna 2011.

Web links

Commons : Parish Church of St. Stephan Weistrach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 3 '20.1 "  N , 14 ° 35' 0.8"  E