Veitskirche

The parish church of St Vitus stands on a small hill above the market square in St Veit im Pongau, a market town in the Salzach valley. First recorded in 1074 under Archbishop Gebhard, it served as the mother parish for the whole southern Pongau. The present building grew from a Romanesque stone church of the 11th century, rebuilt after a fire in 1334 as a Gothic hall with two rib-vaulted aisles and a tall west tower. Later additions include a Baroque onion dome on the tower in 1730, a painted choir from the 15th century, and a crypt reached by an outside stair. The church is worth visiting for its layered history and surviving furnishings. The high altar of 1649 shows the coronation of Mary flanked by Rupert of Salzburg and Virgil, with St Vitus above the tabernacle. Side altars include a 1750 Rokoko altar to Our Lady of the Rosary and a mid-18th-century altar to St Catherine. The organ, built in 1714 by Johann Christoph Egedacher and enlarged in 1974, still plays from the west gallery. Three historic bells remain, the oldest dating from 1464, and fragments of medieval wall paintings were uncovered during restorations. Inside, the nave is divided by octagonal piers into two equal aisles, with the west bay occupied by the organ loft. The Gothic choir retains its painted vault and a late-medieval epitaph on the south wall. In the north aisle a Romanesque tower remnant is visible, while the south aisle houses the Schernberg chapel and a 1500 marble font with a 1748 wooden lid. Outside, the cemetery surrounds the church and a late-Gothic epitaph is set into the choir wall.