Filialkirche St Leonhard an der Saualpe

The small late-Gothic branch church of St Leonard stands in the hamlet of St Leonard on the Saualpe, a forested mountain in southern Austria. It sits at 1,218 metres above sea level on the southern slope, beside the sexton’s house in a clearing reached by woodland paths. First mentioned in 1351, the church was built in the 15th century on the foundations of an earlier Gothic structure. Inside, the three-bay nave is covered by a net-ribbed vault rising from rounded wall shafts. A pointed arch separates the nave from the two-bay choir with its five-sided closure and similar vaulting. The south wall of the choir opens into the sacristy through a Gothic doorway. The tower, still showing its medieval origins, contains a bell cast in 1555 by Urban Fiering and crowned by an octagonal spire. The high altar of 1675 fills the choir and displays a carved group of St Leonard between Bishops Norbert and Servatius. A 17th-century side altar holds a Madonna flanked by Saints Lucia and Barbara, while a late-Gothic statue of St Leonard dates from about 1430. The church’s two narrow windows in the nave include a blocked opening on the south side, and the north portal retains its iron-studded door with shot holes.