parish church Stössing

The Roman Catholic parish church of Stössing stands on a rise in the centre of the village of Stössing in the district of St Pölten in Lower Austria. It is dedicated to Saint Giles and belongs to the deanery of Neulengbach in the diocese of St Pölten. The church and its adjoining cemetery are listed monuments. The church began as a branch of Böheimkirchen parish in 1248 and later of Kasten bei Böheimkirchen in 1265. It became an independent parish in 1783 and was restored inside in 1980. The building’s core is medieval, with a fortified southern wall that once enclosed the graveyard. The church has a simple nave under two different roof heights and a main choir with buttresses and pointed windows that still show fragments of tracery. A tall west tower rises from the south aisle, its slit windows and round-headed louvres supporting a steep pyramid roof added in 1926. Inside, the nave is covered by an ornate wooden ceiling from 1925–26 and a two-bay side choir is linked by a pointed arcade. The main choir ends in a five-sided apse with ribbed vaulting, while the sacristy on the north side retains a late Gothic aumbry with a shaped frame and a shouldered doorway.