Kath. Pfarrkirche hl. Katharina, Podersdorf am See

The Roman Catholic parish church of St Catherine stands beside the lake road in Podersdorf, a small town on the western shore of Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland. Built in the late 18th century, it replaced an earlier church destroyed in the Turkish war of 1683. The architect Franz Anton Pilgram designed the present late-baroque building, completed between 1791 and 1796. The church belongs to Heiligenkreuz Abbey, which has administered the parish since at least 1379. In 1951 and 1957 the interior was restored, and a new organ with eight stops, made by the Rieger brothers in 1912, was installed. The glass façade of the adjoining parish centre, completed in 2002, carries texts written by parishioners of all ages, interwoven with biblical quotations. Visitors enter the late-baroque church through its west door and find a single nave lit by tall windows. The high altar and side altars are carved in pale stone, and the organ case stands above the west gallery. The former nave now serves as a weekday chapel, while the new parish centre offers a spacious Sunday mass hall, meeting rooms and a parish hall. Two seven-metre glass walls link the old church and the new centre, letting light pass between them.