Saint Vitus Church

The Roman Catholic parish church of St Veit stands on slightly higher ground at the southern edge of the village of Großreinprechts in the municipality of Lichtenau in the Waldviertel region of Lower Austria. It belongs to the deanery of Zwettl within the diocese of St Pölten. The church and its adjoining cemetery are listed as historic monuments. The present building began as a Romanesque church in the 13th century and has been altered and enlarged many times since. A southern side chapel dates from the late 17th century, while the round-arched windows were changed and lengthened in 1694. The originally Romanesque tower was raised in 1748, and the south door of the nave belongs to the late 19th century. The churchyard surrounds the building, whose façade is coated in rough concrete render. The nave has a hipped roof and round-arched windows, while the west front shows a round-arched window flanked by two circular openings. The apse at the east end is horseshoe-shaped, with narrow slit windows and a basket-arched south door topped by a transom light. Above the apse rises an irregular nine-sided tower with slit windows, basket-arched sound openings and a pyramidal roof. A turret stair with Gothic trefoil windows stands to the north-east, and the gallery stair is built into the south-west corner of the nave. Two lean-to additions on the south side include a taller chapel with round-arched windows and, further west, a former sacristy now used as a porch with a plain rectangular door framed by plaster.