Pulkau Karner

The Karner in Pulkau stands beside the parish church in the small town of Pulkau in Lower Austria. It is a Romanesque mortuary chapel dedicated to Saint Bartholomew, later enlarged in the Gothic style. The building is protected as a listed monument. The chapel’s circular plan reflects Jerusalem’s round Holy Sepulchre, brought back by returning pilgrims and crusaders. Built around 1255 and consecrated by the Counts of Plain-Hardegg, it was once called the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. In the mid-14th century it gained twelve pointed outer gables and a steep roof during Gothic remodelling. The exterior is a squat stone tower with a semicircular apse and a pyramid roof topped by a Jerusalem cross. The Romanesque portal has paired columns with carved capitals of grapes and flowers beneath a zigzag frieze. Above the entrance stands a Christ in Majesty flanked by the stone figures of Heinrich and Wilburgis Dewin, founders of the chapel. Inside, the high crypt shows ribbed vaulting and a carved grape motif on the keystone, while the east apse contains a sacrament niche.