Pilgrimage Church of Hart

The late-Gothic pilgrimage church stands at the northern edge of the village of Hart, surrounded by meadows in the Innviertel region of Upper Austria. Built between 1515 and 1519, it replaced an earlier structure linked to a host miracle said to have occurred in nearby Auerbach around 1490. The single-nave hall has a slightly raised choir with a three-sided end and a steep roof carried on a late-Gothic timber frame. A six-storey tower rises above the south side, its top octagon opening through round-headed sound arches beneath a bulbous copper cap. Its interior preserves vivid 16th-century wall paintings in the choir, including scenes from the host desecration legend dated 1493 and 1565. The high altar, erected about 1716, carries a painting of the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by J.B. Masthueber and statues by Sebastian Hagenauer. Behind the altar a narrow prayer niche marks the spot where the stolen ciborium was reportedly found. The equally fine side altars, pulpit and iron choir screen date from the same decades, while an early 17th-century organ by Conrad Zerndl was restored in 2008. Visitors enter through a late-Gothic porch on the south side and step beneath a net-vaulted ceiling whose ribs change pattern between nave and choir. Eight double-sided panels behind the high altar depict the host miracle in painted scenes from about 1620. Baroque reliquary pyramids and numerous votive pictures line the walls, and a late-17th-century Madonna on the crescent moon holds the attention. The tower houses a late-Gothic bell cast around 1515, and since 2009 the restored instrument has been heard at the annual Harter Organ Concerts.