Pfarrkirche hl. Wenzel, Harmanschlag

The Roman Catholic parish church of Harmanschlag stands in the village of Harmanschlag, part of the market town of St. Martin in Lower Austria. The church, dedicated to St. Wenceslas, belongs to the Gmünd deanery in the Diocese of St. Pölten. Both the church and its surrounding cemetery are protected as historic monuments. The building began as a Romanesque church with a western tower in the 13th century. Between 1497 and 1523 it was transformed into a late-Gothic hall church. In 1894–95 the master builder Ignaz Knapp added a new Gothic Revival choir and enlarged the nave. The tower was raised in 1746 and given a Baroque bell chamber. Inside, the nave’s Gothic ribbed vault rests on octagonal piers, while the 1895 choir vault sits on polygonal corbels. Visitors find a powerful Romanesque west tower with a Gothic shoulder-arched portal. The churchyard surrounds the elevated building, and outside stands a 19th-century crucifix. Inside, neogothic altars and a pulpit by Ludwig Linzinger date from 1895, while the 1839 organ by Lukas Koller occupies the west gallery. The Romanesque font remains in the tower basement, and the 1883 Stations of the Cross line the walls.