Pfarrkirche hl. Geist, Neckenmarkt

The parish church of Neckenmarkt stands in the heart of the village in Burgenland. It is a medieval Gothic church that was once a fortified church with a moat at the southern end of the village green. The moat has long since disappeared, but the church’s defensive past remains visible in its architecture. In 1642 the building was transformed into a Baroque structure while retaining its Gothic core. The church is protected as a listed monument. The church’s four-storey west tower rises above the village, its upper section supported by corbels and topped with an eight-sided stone pyramid roof. The west portal features a relief of the IHS monogram in a radiant sunburst and a carved angel’s head. The nave is reinforced with buttresses, and the choir ends in a three-sided apse. A blocked north portal, dated 1646, displays a rosette and angel heads, and a pillar bears the Esterházy coat of arms. On the south side, fragments of a late-Gothic doorway were uncovered. A southern annex, the Haschendorfer Chapel, has machicolated parapets and a hidden sloping roof. Inside, the three-bay nave is covered by a barrel vault with broad lunettes, each lunette crowned by a stucco rosette. The west gallery rests on six cross-groined vaults and four Tuscan columns, its balustrade carved with a row of balusters. The choir retains its Gothic star vault enriched with Baroque stucco ribs. The neogothic high altar, made in 1913 by Ferdinand Stufesser, dominates the sanctuary. The 17th-century pulpit shows the four Evangelists between columns, and its sounding board carries a figure of the Immaculate Conception. The red-marble font, dating from the 17th century, supports a statue of John the Baptist from the following century.