Parish Church of St. Elisabeth (Elsbethen)

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Parish Church of St. Elisabeth

The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Elisabeth is centrally located, not far from Goldenstein Castle , in the municipality of Elsbethen , a southern suburb of the city of Salzburg in Austria .

The parish church is consecrated to St. Elisabeth of Thuringia . The patronage festival is celebrated on November 19th.

history

Parish history

The Elisabeth Church in Campanif was mentioned for the first time on September 18, 1373, it was initially a branch of the parish Hallein and from 1754 a curat branch of the parish St. Jakob am Thurn . Since the end of the war in 1945, the establishment as an independent parish had been considered, because the pastoral care area also included the inmates of the Glasenbach camp and the 500 inhabitants of the Rainer barracks . In the course of the final establishment of the Elsbethen parish in 1953, a parsonage was also built. Not only the letters of indulgence that have survived from 1443, 1452 and 1479 provide information about church life in the past centuries, but also measurement foundations, such as the one from 1449 by Ulrich von Fladnitz.

The source material makes it clear that when the Elisabeth Church was still part of the parish of Hallein or the vicariate of St. Jakob am Thurn, the lords of Goldenstein in particular provided strong impulses for the spiritual and religious life. Again and again they tried to get a priest to Elsbethen to ensure the religious life for the villagers. They even caused a chaplaincy to be established for the church.

In 2004, 2930 Catholics lived in the parish of Elsbethen with 5117 inhabitants. The still young parish is largely part of the Bergheim dean's office , but parts of it are also part of the Salzburg city dean's office . The boundary of the parish and that of the political community are not identical. The districts of Glasenbach, Vorderfager, Ober- and Hinterwinkel of the municipality of Elsbethen are part of the Salzburg city parish of Aigen . This situation can be traced back to an area enlargement of the parish in the year 1938, during which the incorporated districts retained their parish affiliation.

Building history

About the church in Elsbethen, which belonged to the parish Hallein in the late Middle Ages , only a few building dates are known that provide information about the original building. There is also no scientific knowledge of an archaeological soil investigation.

The church was first mentioned on September 18, 1373 as the Church of Campanif in a tithing comparison between the Abbot of St. Peter in Salzburg and the pastor of Hallein. Letters of indulgence and donated weekly masses from the 15th century prove the existence of a Gothic religious building in Elsbethen. Archival materials with references to the state of construction and fittings of the church are only found in the second half of the 16th century.

A second construction phase from 1560 to 1617 envisaged extensive preservation of the existing building, although there is also talk of building the church building. In the second decade of the 16th century, in addition to the ongoing renovation work, a new altar was finally purchased in 1616 and an oratory was built a year later .

The third construction phase began in 1677 with the rearrangement of the sacristy windows and work on the tower spire, and with the exterior and interior redesign of the church between 1698 and 1706, significant changes were made. So, according to the construction in the baroque period, the entrance was moved to the rear. The side altars were arranged symmetrically in the chancel , the sacristy was enlarged, the triumphal arch removed, blocks of stalls were erected, a marble floor with two steps of the choir was laid and, after the erection of a new vault construction, an interior design corresponding to the Baroque period with wall pillars and stucco decorations was carried out.

The fourth and last major change began in 1777 with the plans for a new west tower by Wolfgang Hagenauer . His design of a pre-built tower was carried out in 1781/82, albeit in a modified form. Inside the church, an adaptation in the late Baroque style took place in 1785, which has largely been preserved and characterizes the current appearance of the parish church.

The church is a listed building .

Building description

The church building

The church of Elsbethen is a single-nave, elongated building with a round apse and semicircular, low walkway. The nave and choir are the same height and uniformly covered with larch shingles. There are symmetrical extensions to the north and south of the choir, where the two-story sacristy is housed.

A three-storey tower is built in front of the triangular gable front in the west, and a low extension is located on both sides of the tower. The tower is structured by the entrance portal, cornices , arched sound windows and the round dial. It is crowned by an onion helmet with a tent roof . The main entrance in the west leads through the marble arched portal marked S. 1781 G. into the groin-vaulted tower ground floor.

interior

The single-nave interior is barrel vaulted and rounded in the east. Pilasters and a circumferential, profiled, cranked cornice structure the walls. The barrel vault is divided into fields by belt arches , some of which are provided with stucco and cartouches .

In the second half of the 19th century, Josef Rattensperger painted the ceiling frescoes , the content of which relates to the altar. The coronation of Mary is depicted in the choir and three scenes from the life of St. Elisabeth von Thuringia (Elisabeth takes care of a sick person, distributes alms to the poor and is expelled from the Wartburg).

The organ gallery with the balustrade swinging out in the middle is decorated with stucco around 1700, and there are acanthus tendrils to the side . In the middle cartridge there is St. Cäcilia modeled and polychromed in stucco with putti making music .

The wooden altars date from the beginning of the 18th century. They are set and some ornaments are also gilded. The main altar with columns and pilasters, a high, two-zone, gold-adorned base zone and a simple cafeteria, shows the figures of Saints in the arched niche that extends into the entablature zone. Mary with child in a halo. She is surrounded by angels floating on clouds. St. Elisabeth, endowed with her attributes , crown and jug, and to her left a beggar kneels. A gold-plated cartridge with the inscription Maria Mater Gratiae ( Maria, Mother of Grace ) completes the arched niche . The group of figures is flanked by the Saints Ulrich and Aegidius , standing on consoles formed by volutes . In the cafeteria there is a tabernacle from 1761. In the extension of the high altar there is a niche where God the Father is flanked by Saints Leonhard and Placidus . The high altar is crowned by an angel holding a cross.

The side altars show the same simple structure - altar paintings, left and right of them statues of saints, a transversely oval top image. Main part and extension are connected by gilded S-shaped acanthus tendrils. All paintings (oil on canvas) were created by Matthias Siller. The picture on the right side altar is labeled JMSiler f. Signed and dated 1771 . The theme of the stigmatization of St. Francis and the Presentation of St. Raimund in the upper picture can be found as a painting in the left side altar. The figures on the side represent Saints Achatius and Florian . On the right side altar is the image of St. Anthony of Padua can be seen flanked by Saints Sebastian and Rochus . The upper picture depicts the stigmatization of St. Catherine of Siena . The painting of St. Joseph on the Altarmensa also dates from the 18th century.

The crucifixion group attached to the north wall of the nave with the captured figures of St. Mary, John and Magdalena , which is associated with the name of the sculptor Hans Waldburger.

Opposite this group of figures is the pulpit from around 1700. The semi-square parapet is decorated with gilded stucco tendrils, the drain with gilded acanthus leaves. The sound cover is crowned by a trumpet-blowing putto sitting on a cloud.

On the south wall of the nave there is Sebastian Pflügel's tombstone with the year 1562, a coat of arms stone from the 15th century and a statuette, Christ on the scourge column, in a baroque case from the 18th century. The church's furnishings include two small groups of figures from the 18th century, which are placed in a niche above the sacristy doors: A Pietà with St. John and three women in the left and St. Clan in the right alcove.

Franz Christoph Mayerhofer painted the 15  Stations of the Cross in 1736 with the additional image of St. Elisabeth (with the signature “ H.Elisabetha Kirchen patteronin Bitt vor us, straightened up in 1736 ”). The Immaculata standing on a console on the left wall of the nave dates from the 19th century .
The popular altar and lectern are works of the 20th century.

The organ is a work by Ludwig Mooser from 1844.

literature

  • Robert Karl: Elsbethen. A place through the ages. Elsbethen municipality, Elsbethen 1994.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Personnel status of the world and religious clergy of the Archdiocese of Salzburg for 1957 ( Schematismus 1957), ed. from the Archbishop's Office in Salzburg 1957, p. 170.
  2. Handbook of the Archdiocese of Salzburg 2004/2005 . Number of employees and address directory ( scheme 2004/5), ed. from the Archbishop's Office in Salzburg 2004, p. 199.

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 ′ 32.1 "  N , 13 ° 4 ′ 59.2"  E