Church of Spitz, Lower Austria

The late-Gothic parish church of Spitz stands in the eastern part of the small town of Spitz in the Krems district of Lower Austria. It is dedicated to Saint Maurice and protected as a listed monument. A medieval chapel first appears in records from 1163, later becoming a parish in 1222–25 under the authority of nearby St Michael’s fortress church in the Wachau. The church’s exterior shows a high pitched roof over a four-bay nave and a slightly taller, angled choir. A four-storey west tower carries a steep slate roof with coloured tiles, the only fully preserved medieval polychrome roof of its kind in Austria. Inside, the three-aisled nave has ribbed vaults on octagonal piers, with relief keystones bearing the coats of arms of Spitz and Niederaltaich. The choir, raised above the nave, contains a painted triptych of the Zollern and Kirchberg families and colourful sculpted corbels. Visitors enter through the richly carved west portal into a spacious nave where late-Gothic side chapels and a two-storey sacristy open off the aisles. The high altar, brought from Niederaltaich in 1718, shows the martyrdom of Saint Maurice in a painting dated 1799. Fragments of 16th-century frescoes survive on the south wall, and the tower chapel preserves 14th-century wall paintings of the Crucifixion and Saint Christopher.