Pfarrkirche Oberkohlstätten

The Roman Catholic parish church of Oberkohlstätten stands on the upper village street in the hamlet of the same name within Unterkohlstätten municipality in Burgenland. It is dedicated to Saint Leonard and belongs to the deanery of Rechnitz in the diocese of Eisenstadt. The building has been listed as a protected monument since the 1972 restoration.

The parish itself was founded in 1779, but a Leonard’s chapel already stood on the site by 1749. Around 1800 the chapel was enlarged to include a tower, gallery and chancel, giving the church its present shape. The organ was installed in 1991 by Bernhard Ottitsch, replacing an earlier instrument.

The exterior shows a tower bonded into the façade, topped by an eight-sided pyramid roof. Inside, the three-bay nave is covered by a flat ceiling divided by transverse arches that do not align with the wall pilasters. The southern bay houses a three-aisled gallery supported by columns and vaulted in ribbed sections. The chancel, separated by a pointed arch on sloping pilasters, has a ribbed vault and a shell-shaped apse. The high altar’s neo-Romanesque tabernacle holds an 1800 oil painting of Saint Leonard adoring the Trinity, with a view of the church below.