Church Schönau an der Triesting

The parish church of St Andrew stands in Schönau an der Triesting, a village in the Baden district of Lower Austria. It occupies a quiet spot west of the old Braungasse, between the former settlement and Schönau Castle. A simple Baroque church built between 1671 and 1675, it replaced an earlier chapel dedicated to St Joseph. The building shows a steep nave with strong buttresses that rise to the eaves, and a west front topped by a small onion dome. Inside, a two-bay hall opens into a narrower choir with a ribbed vault. Two large round arches on each side give onto shallow side chapels, one of which became a two-storey oratory in 1818. The organ loft, carried on Tuscan columns, projects into the space beneath a three-bay cross vault. The high altar, dating from the early 18th century, carries a painting of the martyrdom of St Andrew and statues of St James, two Augustinian monks, and a female saint later identified as St Barbara. The ceiling was painted in 1913 by Maximilian Roth in a late Baroque style. A life-size cast-stone crucifix and a statue of the Immaculate Conception, both from about 1915, flank the apse.