St. Nikolaus (Waldprechting)

The 15th-century branch church of St Nicholas stands in the hamlet of Waldprechting, part of Seekirchen on the Wallersee in Salzburg province. It is a simple rectangular building with a steep roof and small round-arched windows, protected as a listed monument. Archaeologists found traces of two earlier churches from the 8th century beneath the present walls. The church was first recorded in 1500 and consecrated in 1523 by Bishop Berthold Pürstinger of Chiemsee. In the 17th and 18th centuries its interior was transformed into a Baroque showpiece, though the exterior kept late-Gothic details such as the ornamental frieze dated 1517. The tower, added in 1707, rises above a vaulted ground floor and ends in a double onion dome. Inside, the four-bay nave is covered by a barrel vault with Baroque ribs and painted medallions of the Apostles. The high altar, carved in 1720 by Veit Mödlhammer, carries a painting of St Nicholas by Sebastian Stief from 1867. On the south wall hangs a fragment of a Last Judgement scene, while the sacristy vault dates from 1690. A bell cast in the 15th century by Jörg Gloppitscher still rings for services.