Pfarrkirche hl. Jakob der Ältere, Payerbach

The Catholic parish church of Payerbach stands on rising ground above the village square in the market town of Payerbach in the district of Neunkirchen, Lower Austria. It is dedicated to Saint James the Greater and belongs to the deanery of Gloggnitz in the vicariate of Unter dem Wienerwald under the Archdiocese of Vienna. The church is protected as a listed monument. The building began as a branch church of the former parish at Gloggnitz Castle and was linked to Formbach Abbey. Payerbach became a separate parish in 1379. In 1446 the church was destroyed and rebuilt the following year. The nave’s west and north walls still contain a Romanesque core from the 12th century. The choir and southern sacristy date from the 14th century, while the nave was extended southwards in the late 15th century. Around 1510 a late-Gothic tower known locally as the Black Tower was added, and by about 1525 the nave had been vaulted. During the Turkish wars the church served as a fortified place of refuge. In the 18th century the southern sacristy was raised and fitted with an oratory, and in 1828 a new sacristy with an upper oratory was built to the north along with a porch at the west entrance. A neo-Gothic restoration took place between 1880 and 1884, and further internal and external restorations were carried out in 1970 and 1973. Inside, the two-aisled late-Gothic hall church has a steep roof and pointed windows. The choir, set back slightly, is of equal height under a hipped roof and has simple stepped buttresses and pointed windows. In the northern corner of the choir stands a two-storey sacristy built in 1928, while the southern corner holds another two-storey sacristy from the same year with a half-round eastern end. The massive Black Tower projects into the south-west corner of the nave, rising through four storeys with string courses and rectangular windows and topped by a pyramidal roof. A late-Gothic painted window frame with a cross-flower adorns the south side of the nave, and a single window on the north side bears the date 1817.