Church Gaaden

The Roman Catholic parish church of Gaaden stands high above the village on a hill west of the settlement in the municipality of Gaaden, district of Mödling, Lower Austria. Dedicated to Saint James, it belongs to Heiligenkreuz Abbey and sits within the deanery of Heiligenkreuz in the vicariate of Unter dem Wienerwald under the Archdiocese of Vienna. The church and the adjoining presbytery with its gateway are protected monuments.

Built in the 12th century, the church began as a small Romanesque hall with a narrow square choir and western tower. Around 1300 the vault was added and in 1334 it became a parish church. After a fire in 1576 and damage during the Great Turkish War in 1683, the medieval fortress-church was enlarged between 1735 and 1740 under Abbot Robert Leeb of Heiligenkreuz, who added a twin-towered façade. In 2003 a burglar stole a marble angel by Giovanni Giuliani; the sculpture reappeared in Vienna in 2019 during an estate sale and was returned.

The original fortified-church ensemble is enclosed by a churchyard wall on the south and east, with a surviving residential tower north of the nave. The nave has round-arched side windows under a pitched roof and painted pilasters on the façade. The west front shows a central projection topped by a curved gable bearing a stone cross, while above the west door stands a statue of Saint James by Giovanni Giuliani from the early 18th century. The two flanking towers, set slightly back, have round-arched sound openings and onion domes. Inside, the former Romanesque hall was opened up with wide flat arches to create a tall square central space with side chapels. The stained glass depicts Saints John the Baptist, Joseph, Leopold and Anna with Mary, probably made by Rudolf Geyling in 1897.