Pfarrkirche Mittersill

Pfarrkirche Mittersill

The parish church Mittersill was built after the great market fire Mittersill (1746) in the years 1747 – 1749 by Johann Kleber.It captivates by its simple festivity, caused by the wonderful color stucco in the rococo style. The high altarpiece shows St. Leonhard, parton saint of the cattle, the village and the parish church. Particularly impressive is the crucifixion group above the popular altar and the pulpit by the local sculptor Peter Schmid on 1765.The glass painting from 1840 are significant in terms of art history. Also worth seeing is the “Schmerzenskapelle” (Chapel of Sorrows) with the suffering Christ and many votive tablets.The church is open for prayer and visitation at any time. A church guide is available in the church. The high altar of the parish church of Mittersill unites workt from the 17th to the 20th century. The oldest part is the centerpiece of the altar, including the postaments of the tw inner columns.

Parish church

The largest of Mittersill’s three churches has stood outside and to the south of the old market centre for more than 250 years. After the destruction of the former Leonhard’s Church by the market fire and frequent flooding, the present parish church was rebuilt on a slightly higher and drier site. Its striking feature is its north-south orientation and not the usual eastward orientation, as well as the onion dome. Like St Anne’s Church, these indicate that the church was built in the Baroque or Rococo period; in the entire Upper Pinzgau region, there are otherwise only churches with a pointed tower.

The interior of the church has been restored several times in recent decades and now shines in bright splendour. Visitors interested in art can discover several special features that date back to the old Gothic main church. The Mittersill sculptors and painters Petrus Schmid father and son have immortalised themselves here with their works.

Both the high altar with the image of St Leonhard as the patron saint of prisoners and the sick and the side altars (on the left the St Joseph altar as a reference to the Josefi Brotherhood of Mittersill founded in 1721, on the right the women’s altar with the Gothic figure of the Mother of God – Our Lady of Mercy in the Mittersill market town – come from the old St Leonhard church. However, they were built higher and wider so that they fit better into the new, larger church building.

In addition to the two larger-than-life figures in the nave – the Mother of Sorrows (Mater dolorosa) on the left and the Man of Sorrows (Ecce-Homo) on the right – the ornate pulpit and sounding board are striking. Often described by art experts as the most magnificent rococo pulpit in the Pinzgau region, it was also created by father and son Schmid.

The Mittersill church windows, commissioned by the then caretaker Ignaz von Kürsinger, are also worthy of note. In 1841, he reported in an essay on the rebirth of stained glass in Austria that since their acquisition, these stained glass windows had been viewed by the highest authorities, scholars and artists. They were created by Johann Hauer from Krumlov. He was the son of a glass manufacturer and worked in several glassworks in Salzburg and Upper Austria. Unfortunately, two precious works of art from the old church are not on display: the Gothic statuette of St Leonhard in the working-day chapel, which is not open to the public, and the group of figures of St Anne-Selbdritt from the former Faistenberger altar in St Anne’s Church, now in the Cathedral Museum in Salzburg.