Pfarrkirche hl. Margaretha, Reichenau

St. Margarethen in der Reichenau is a Roman Catholic parish church in the village of St. Margarethen in the municipality of Reichenau in Carinthia. It stands on a gentle rise in the centre of the village, surrounded by farmland and orchards. The church is dedicated to St. Margaret and first appears in records in 1307. By 1433 it had become a parish church and in 1470 Emperor Frederick III visited the village. In the 17th and 18th centuries it served as a vicariate church for Tiffen. A fire in 1838 damaged the building. The church is a late 15th-century Gothic structure. A square west tower with arrow slits and round-headed louvres was given a pointed spire in the 19th century. A Gothic pointed portal leads from the porch into the nave, which is supported by stepped buttresses. The windows show varied tracery patterns, though only one original window survives. On the south wall of the nave is a 1507 wall painting of St. Christopher. The sacristy and a wooden porch are attached to the north side, where further murals depict the Last Judgement, the Crucifixion and saints including Catherine, Barbara, Gothard and Blasius, some of which have been painted over. Inside, the nave has a ribbed barrel vault on polygonal piers, painted with figures on consoles. The Gothic organ loft of 1518 rests on four wooden columns and its front bears six panels with interlaced and foliate designs, three of which include images of St. Cecilia and a still life. A pointed 1492 chancel arch leads to a two-bay choir with a three-eighths apse and a net-ribbed vault. The high altar from the early 18th century fills the choir and features statues of St. Catherine and St. Barbara flanking the central image of the church’s patron. Side altars from the late 17th century depict the Assumption of Mary and scenes from the lives of St. Sebastian and St. Nicholas. A Roman-period gravestone for C. Cassius Maximus and Messia Belatussa is set into the wall behind the high altar.