Kath. Pfarrkirche hl. Maximilian Bischofshofen

The parish church of St Maximilian stands in Bischofshofen, a town in the Salzach valley where the Pongau meets the Dientener mountains. Built on the site of the 8th-century Cella Maximiliana founded by St Rupert and Duke Theodbert, it is one of the oldest Christian sites in the Alps. The present church shows layers from the 13th-century Augustinian priory, a 14th-century Gothic choir and a 15th-century hall with a crossing tower. Inside, the walls carry faded late-Gothic frescoes of the Passion painted around 1490. The high altar of 1680 combines a late-Gothic shrine with Baroque figures of Emperor Henry and St Kunigunde. Two side altars reuse baroque carvings from the Lungau, while the south transept holds a 16th-century group of St Anne with the infant Jesus by Lienhart Astl. The oldest object is the Rupertus Cross, an eighth-century English or Irish reliquary cross brought to Salzburg by Bishop Virgil. The church’s crossing tower rises above a rectangular nave whose ribs meet in a star vault. The north wall still shows the outline of the medieval choir, and the attached Kastenhof, once the Augustinian monastery’s granary, now serves as the town hall. Beyond the altar rail, the marble font wears a Baroque canopy topped by a small figure of John the Baptist.