Fortified church of Kleinzwettl
The fortified church of Kleinzwettl with a well-preserved fortified cemetery stands on a hill to the southwest off the town of Kleinzwettl in the market town of Gastern in the Waidhofen an der Thaya district in Lower Austria . The Roman Catholic branch church , consecrated to St. James the Elder , belongs to the deanery Waidhofen an der Thaya in the diocese of St. Pölten . The church is a listed building ( list entry ).
history
The church was officially renewed in 1636. Another renovation was around 1770. In 1911/1913 there was a renovation. 1961 a restoration.
architecture
The Romanesque and Gothic rebuilt hall church has a mighty roof turret and stands in the middle of a polygonally enclosed churchyard with a quarry stone wall that has been preserved almost in full.
The churchyard with an eastern entrance was originally additionally secured by an upstream earth wall and a former moat. The protruding, slightly raised, rectangular gate tower, open at the back, consists of quarry stone masonry with a battlements from the 15th century, traces of a winch fold of the former drawbridge can still be seen on the side of the arched gate. In the west there was a further protection against the rising terrain by a semicircular earth wall with a neck ditch. The remains of an earth stable have been preserved below the church.
The exterior of the church shows mostly unplastered quarry stone masonry under a gable roof. The essentially Romanesque nave shows the original height from the 12th century with eaves and a western gable line. In the second half of the 13th century the nave was increased. There are Romanesque arched windows, two small windows on the north and south sides are walled up, on the south side there are also two small window frames, the upper one in the area of the later elevation. There are baroque, partly widened, round and arched windows, which are irregularly distributed. In the southern Gothic profiled pointed arch portal, the original door wing with the block lock and beam bolt holes on the inner door frame have been preserved. The original segmented tympanum stone with a relief cross of the former Romanesque portal was found in 1961 and attached to the church wall.
The Gothic two-bay rectangular choir from the first half of the 14th century has simply stepped, later added buttresses and Gothic pointed arched windows, some with three-pass panels and plastered cross crowns. The eight-sided ridge has a pyramid roof and was renewed in 1908/1909. In the southern corner of the choir is the medieval and baroque vaulted sacristy extension.
There are traces of a baroque ashlar painted red on the nave cornice and the choir.
The cemetery cross mentions 1884.
The interior of the church in the Romanesque nave shows the subsequent elevation in the upper area with the wall recess, the nave was probably changed in stages to a two-aisled four-bay hall in the 15th century. The ribbed vault with accentuated belt ribs starts in a nose-shaped manner on the central eight-sided pillars or rests on polygonal, recessed wall templates and rests on a richly profiled console in the southwest and on the north wall, the keystones with coats of arms and handicrafts are probably called the foundations. The organ loft, which was added later, is vaulted with cross ribs on profiled consoles and keel arch arcades, on the central eight-sided pillar on horn consoles, in the southern edge area due to the Romanesque portal, narrowed in the northern area by a re-entrant wall.
The strongly drawn-in, slightly pointed triumphal arch has a Gothic border and names 1462 or 1465. On the arch there is a Gothic four-sided plastered stone pulpit on a granite foot, the pulpit has a staircase, the staircase parapet has a chamfered edging and a grooved granite handrail.
From the beginning of the renovation, the two-bay choir has a ribbed vault with keystones and ribs that are lowered to the floor in the corners, the ribs are set off in the middle, nose-shaped, on round bars. The granite sacrament house is from the construction period, on a large base stone is a round rod and a tabernacle attachment with a bead framing under dazzling eyelashes, behind a diamond lattice stands the carved figure of St. Sebastian from the 18th century. The chamfered session niche has a flat arch.
The inside of the church is laid out with a baroque slab floor made of granite, a granite slab in the floor closes the exit in the earth stable.
Furnishing
Johann Rosenauer built the high altar as a former side altar of the Zwettl collegiate church in 1615 and was transferred here around 1730.
There are two remarkable wooden figures - Maria and Johannes Evangelist, probably from a triumphal cross group around 1440. There is a Pietà around 1520. The originally Baroque painting of Teaching Mary was renewed around 1930 and was given a frame from the early 17th century, like the Baroque painting of the Holy Family revised in a frame from the 18th century.
The round Gothic granite baptismal font has a renewed polygonal base. The holy water stone is made of granite. The stalls in the nave have been renewed in a medieval style, the stalls in the choir are baroque.
The parapet organ was built in the first half of the 18th century. The bells are from the 15th century and from 1519.
literature
- Kleinzwettl, municipality of Gastern, branch church hl. Jakob d. Ä., With floor plan, churchyard, small monuments, In: Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Dehio Lower Austria north of the Danube 1990 . Pp. 529-531.
Web links
- Entry about Kleinzwettl on NÖ-Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, University of Salzburg
Coordinates: 48 ° 52 ′ 42.1 ″ N , 15 ° 12 ′ 42.8 ″ E