Expositurkirche Müselbach

The Expositurkirche Müselbach stands in the hamlet of Müselbach, on a slope between the Bregenzer Ach river and the Bregenzerwald road. It belongs to the parish of Alberschwende in the Bregenzerwald region of Vorarlberg. The church is dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and has been under Denkmalschutz since the 1980s. Its simple rectangular nave and lower, narrower choir give it a modest silhouette against the surrounding hills. The building sits on ground that once held the older Rupertikapelle, traces of which were removed in 1880. The church’s history began in 1497 when eight local landowners petitioned for a consecrated chapel. By 1867 it had become an Expositurkirche with its own resident priest, paid for by the villagers. The present building was designed by Seraphin Pümpel, city master-builder of Feldkirch, after an earlier plan by Josef Vonstadl was rejected on cost grounds. It was consecrated in 1883 by Generalvikar Simon Aichner and the cemetery around it was opened four years later, ending the need to carry the dead to Alberschwende. The oldest bell, cast in 1581, still hangs in the tower alongside three later replacements cast by Grassmayr of Innsbruck. Inside, the nave is divided into three bays with a flat barrel vault and shallow lunettes. The choir is a single bay ending in a three-sided apse. Wall paintings by Engelbert Luger from 1888 show God the Father and the four Evangelists in the choir, while later works around 1940 depict scenes of the Sacred Heart in the nave. The stained glass, made by the Tiroler Glasmalereianstalt in 1940–41, portrays New Testament episodes and local saints. The high altar and side altars, carved around 1885, contain reliefs by F. Schmalzl and figures of biblical and saintly figures. The pulpit, organ case, pews and wrought-iron chancel screen were all installed in the same decade, completing the church’s furnishings.