Laurenzkirche (Katzelsdorf)

The Roman Catholic filial church of St Lawrence stands in the centre of Katzelsdorf on the main street. It is a small village church under Denkmalschutz protection. The building began as a branch of the parish church of St Nicholas in nearby Lanzenkirchen. After wartime damage in 1944 left the church a ruin, the medieval north tower from the late 13th century was restored between 1952 and 1957. The tower, built of rubble masonry with an early Baroque upper section and round-arched sound windows, carries a tented roof. Inside, the ground floor now holds a flat-ceilinged chapel space, once the original Romanesque choir square, reinforced and narrowed during the restoration. From 1957 to 1958 the architect Hans Petermair added a new nave and chancel, turning the orientation from north-east to south-east. The simple rectangular building has plain façades with corner quoins and round-arched windows under pitched roofs. An open porch fronts the north side beside the tower, while a sacristy extends east of the nave and chancel. The interior ceiling is lined with flat wooden barrel vaults above strong cornices, and a tall round-arched chancel arch marks the transition. The 17th-century furnishings, including the organ built by Friedrich Deutschmann in 1820, were saved from the Ursuline church in Vienna’s Innere Stadt and installed here in 1963.