Filialkirche hl. Valentin

The Roman Catholic Filialkirche Haselbach stands in the village of Haselbach within the town of Braunau am Inn in Upper Austria. It belongs to the parish of Braunau-Höft and is dedicated to Saint Valentine. The church and its former cemetery are protected as historic monuments. The building began in 1299 and grew through the centuries. In the fifteenth century it was enlarged in the Gothic style. In 1690 the pillars dividing the two naves were removed, and in 1774 a new vault was inserted. Heavy rain in May and June 2016 caused the choir to sink by three centimetres, prompting emergency repairs and a full renovation in 2017. The church’s exterior shows stepped buttresses along nave and choir. Inside, the four-bay nave has a barrel vault on wall piers, while the raised three-bay choir ends in a three-sided apse with Gothic ribbing that was later removed. The two-storey west gallery curves gracefully. The walls carry frescoes of Saint Valentine’s life, painted in 1774 by Johann Nepomuk della Croce. The tower in the south choir angle has a net-ribbed vault and an octagonal spire. Both south and north portals are Gothic, the north door retaining its original ironwork.