Sankt Petrus

The Catholic branch church of St Peter stands in Schönau, a hamlet within the spa town of Bad Schallerbach in Upper Austria. The present building preserves walls from a 10th- or 11th-century Romanesque church first recorded in 1142 by Pope Innocent II. It belonged to Mondsee Abbey for more than six centuries before passing to Passau in 1706, and became a secular parish under Emperor Joseph II in 1785.

The church’s shape was fixed between 1811 and 1826, when the chancel and nave were rebuilt. In 1905 the side chapels and tower were added under parish priest Michael Breuer, who also served in the Upper Austrian diet. The 1965–66 restoration uncovered the old Romanesque foundations, and the interior was refitted by artist Max Spielmann, who created the mosaic altar, ambo, enamel panels and Stations of the Cross.

The church sits at the heart of a walled cemetery that now occupies the sites of two former schools. South-east of the building stands the large Mair farmstead, once part of Mondsee Abbey. A short walk west leads to the old parsonage, and traces remain of the 1860 cross route to the Magdalenaberg church, marked by a wayside stone and wooden cross.