Pfarrkirche hl. Martin, Neukirchen

The Catholic parish church of St Martin stands on a slight rise in the middle of Neukirchen an der Wild, a village in the Brunn an der Wild municipality of Horn district, Lower Austria. The church is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours and belongs to the Horn deanery in the Diocese of St Pölten. Both the church and its surrounding cemetery are listed as historic monuments. Neukirchen became a separate parish in the middle of the 11th century after having been a branch of Horn parish. Around 1210 the parish passed from Hohenburg-Wildberg to the provincial ruler, then to the Maissau family, then to Stift St Bernhard, and finally in 1596 to the Jesuits. After becoming a Kameral parish in 1773, it passed in 1852 to Stift Klosterneuburg as a patron parish. The building’s oldest part is Romanesque, with an early-Gothic choir and a Romanesque tower at the north-east corner. In 1523 the nave was widened into a two-aisled hall. The churchyard is enclosed by a medieval wall whose lower courses show regular ashlar blocks and herringbone masonry, while the upper courses have been renewed with pitched roofs. The nave, originally Romanesque, was rebuilt in the early-Gothic style around 1300 and now has a steep roof and a plain west front. Inside, the furnishings were partly rearranged in 1904 by Ludwig Linzinger, and the organ was built in 1936 by Gregor Franz Hradetzky, who took over Franz Capek’s workshop.