Saint John the Baptist Church

The Catholic parish church of St John the Baptist stands on a slope at the northern edge of St Johann am Steinfelde, a village within the town of Ternitz in Lower Austria. Built in the late Romanesque style, it has a Gothic choir and a two-aisled nave surrounded by a walled cemetery. The church and its enclosure are listed monuments. The church’s history begins in 1204 when it was mentioned as a filial church of St Lorenzen. By 1352 it had become a vicariate and before 1487 a full parish. In 1783 it gained independence and was cared for by Cistercians until 1970. Inside, frescoes from the early 14th century and a remarkable ‘Living Cross’ from about 1450 adorn the sanctuary. Visitors enter through the cemetery and pass beneath the tower, which shelters a four-metre-deep ossuary. On the south wall of the tower a 1937 fresco shows St Christopher with a Volkswagen Beetle and St John the Baptist. The nave vaults display shields bearing the image of St John on Patmos, the Austrian escutcheon and the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire. The high altar, a baroque sarcophagus from the 18th century, holds relics and shows the Baptism of Christ.