St.Erhard

The Catholic parish church of St Erhard stands at the foot of the steeply rising Schlossstraße in Helfenberg, a village in the Rohrbach district of Upper Austria. The church is dedicated to Saint Erhard of Regensburg and belongs to the deanery of St Johann am Wimberg in the diocese of Linz. It has been under official protection since the 19th century. The church first appears in records from 1224 and became independent again in 1633 after earlier unions. The present building was remodelled between 1712 and 1716 under the direction of Johann Michael Prunner. The organ installed in 1715 by Johann Ignaz Egedacher cost 200 gulden without transport. A new organ with fifteen stops was built in 1990 by the Upper Austrian Organ Building Company Kögler and Bernhardt Edskes. The late-Gothic walls of the nave and choir survive from about 1500, along with the lower part of the south tower. The high altar, built by Simon Raweder between 1906 and 1909, is the only remnant of the former neo-Byzantine furnishings. Paintings and statues from the Baroque period now occupy the side positions. The pulpit dates from the Josephinist era around 1770–80 and shows the three theological virtues. Four statues of the Latin church fathers, made by Philipp Rambler in 1714, line the walls.