Pfarrkirche Sandl

The Catholic parish church of St John of Nepomuk stands in Sandl, a village in the Freistadt district of Upper Austria. It sits exactly on the watershed between the Elbe and the Danube basins, a fact marked by its unusual position. The churchyard wall encloses not only the church but also the old schoolhouse and the parish house, forming a single ensemble. The building began in 1739 under Count Harrach’s patronage and was finished in 1742 by master builders Johann Haslinger, Johann Matthias Krinner and Josef Neuperger. Its late-baroque interior has three bays under a vaulted ceiling, with shallow side chapels between massive buttresses. The organ case, probably made by Anton Preysinger in 1742, still contains an instrument rebuilt in 2007 by Pirchner. The high altar, painted by Christian Leeb, shows the saint kneeling before the Virgin. Inside, the stalls and furnishings follow the legend of St John of Nepomuk. The square west tower rises above the choir, which is roofed with a flat vault. Two small sacristies occupy the corners of the choir, one extended to the east. A memorial plaque in the churchyard remembers Stephanus Ranabaur, the first parish priest, who died in 1774.