Pfarrkirche Gaubitsch

The Pfarrkirche Gaubitsch stands on a small hill in the north-east of the village of Gaubitsch in Mistelbach district, Lower Austria. Built as a Roman Catholic parish church dedicated to Saint Stephen, it belongs to the deanery of Laa-Gaubitsch in the vicariate of Unter dem Manhartsberg within the archdiocese of Vienna. Both the church and the former cemetery are listed as historic monuments. The building began as a Romanesque hall church around the 11th century under the Bishopric of Passau. In the 16th century the parish was split in two, and in 1785 both parishes passed from Passau to state patronage. The eastern choir and western tower date from the Gothic period, while the nave retains its original Romanesque core. The church is partly enclosed by the old cemetery wall. Inside, the high altar is a neo-Gothic winged altarpiece painted in 1875 by Josef Keßler, flanked by carved figures of Saints Peter and Paul by the sculptor Vorbauer. The organ, once housed in a Baroque case from about 1780, originally contained an 1937 instrument by Ferdinand Molzer with eight stops before being removed in 1970. A bell cast in 1770 by Johann Adam Henckelmann still hangs in the tower. Three notable late-Gothic light columns from the second half of the 15th century also stand in the church.