St. Michael
St. Michael is slightly elevated above the Danube on a terrace at the foot of the Michaelerberg, which drops steeply into the Danube here, between Spitz an der Donau and Weißenkirchen in der Wachau in the area where, after 800, Charlemagne was king of the Franconian Empire from 768 to 814 Reichs was the area donated to the Bishopric of Passau. The bishopric of Passau was the secular dominion of the prince bishops of Passau, which existed until 1803, the time of secularization, secularization, the separation of church and state.
At the current location of St. Michael's Church, Charlemagne had a Michael sanctuary built instead of a Celtic sacrificial site. In Christianity, Saint Michael is considered the slayer of the devil and the supreme commander of the Lord's army. After the victorious Battle of Lechfeld on August 10, 955, the culmination of the Hungarian invasions, Archangel Michael became the patron saint of the East Frankish Empire, the eastern part of the empire that emerged from the division of the Frankish Empire in 843, the early medieval precursor of the Holy Roman Empire , explained.
Externally, the church of St. Michael consists of a four-bay nave with a retracted, three-bay choir with a five-eighth note, surrounding cornice and over-gabled buttresses with water hammer. The two- and three-panel tracery windows have fishbowl, trefoil, and semicircular arch forms. On the south side there is a richly barred shoulder arch portal. On the choir ridge are terracotta cultures of deer and horses, the so-called hares. The four-storey west tower with a cornice structure is set halfway into the nave. The nave, buttresses and tower consist of unplastered quarry stone masonry with local stones and scaffolding holes.
With the advent of cannons in the 14th century, square towers of fortifications were replaced by round towers, since round towers are less susceptible to damage from cannonballs hitting them from the side. The enclosing wall of St. Michael, which was originally around 7 meters high and partly served as a lining wall due to the difference in level to the Danube, was raised in 1575 and reinforced in 1605 and 1677. The round tower in the south-east corner of the fortifications was formerly connected to the ossuary by a walkable arched bridge, today with a floating floor
The prince-archbishopric of Salzburg ruled on the right side of the Danube from 860, while the left side was subordinate to the bishopric of Passau. After the diocese of Passau was a suffragan of the archdiocese of Salzburg, the entire Wachau belonged directly or indirectly to the prince-archbishopric of Salzburg. A suffragan bishopric is a diocese of one archdiocese is subordinate. The fortified church of St. Michael was the mother church of the Wachau. Since the dissolution of the parish in 1784 by Emperor Joseph II, St. Michael has been a subsidiary church of the Wösendorf parish. Before that, the parish of Wösendorf had been a branch of St. Michael since the 12th century.
The ossuary of St. Michael, built at the end of the 14th century, was donated in 1395 by the Wösendorf citizen "Seyfrid den freytl" and his wife Margret. The ossuary to the east of the St. Michael branch church is a narrow, high building with a five-eighth degree and strong, stepped buttresses as well as two-lane pointed arch windows with quatrefoil tracery and lancet windows with trefoil closures. The western smooth gable wall is crowned by a six-sided projecting ridge turret with a pyramidal helmet and a gable wreath on a console.
The pointed arch portal is also housed in the western gable wall. On the west wall are the remains of a monumental mural painting of St. Christopher with a ducal hat from the 4th quarter of the 15th century. Inside, the ossuary has a single bay with ribbed vaulting on chalice consoles and a relief keystone with a coat of arms with three hearts. The inventory consists of mummy remains in showcases and 3 Josephine savings coffins. What is special about the ossuary of St. Michael is that the building referred to as ossuary is a chapel containing an ossuary. An ossuary, i.e. an ossuary, was a collection point for the bones from cemeteries where space had to be made for further burials. Ossuaries were introduced in the 11th and 12th centuries. The ossuary is therefore often connected to a cemetery, as in St. Michael. Especially in this form the ossuary is called Karner. Christian ossuaries are often dedicated to Archangel Michael. They may have two stories or be added later, often with a chapel in the upper room. At the turn of the 20th century ossuaries fell into disuse.
The Wachau used to extend from Spitz an der Donau to Weißenkirchen in der Wachau and the valley floor from St. Michael via Wösendorf and Joching to Weißenkirchen was known as Thal Wachau.
Until 1850, the alluvial terrace on the northern bank of the Danube from St. Michael to Weißenkirchen was known as the 'Wachau Valley'. Thal Wachau includes the towns of Weißenkirchen, Joching, Wösendorf and St. Michael, which together form a single entity. Grapevines were already being cultivated in the valley of the Wachau in the 9th century. In the Thal Wachau Vinothek in Weißenkirchen, the Thal Wachau winegrowers present their wines, which can be tasted from April to October.
