Nikolaikirche

The Nikolaikirche in Linz’s Urfahr district was a late 15th-century Catholic church. It stood near the site where the New Linz Town Hall now rises. A 1492 decree by Emperor Friedrich III allowed Urfahr villagers to hold Mass in their own chapel, and in 1505 the Bishop of Passau consecrated the building. Its main altar honoured Saints Nicholas and Christopher, with side altars for Saints Sebastian, Leopold and the Fourteen Holy Helpers. A 1511–13 view in Budapest shows an unfinished Gothic structure topped by a small bell tower. The church served Urfahr through shifting religious eras. From the late 16th to early 17th century it hosted Lutheran services until the Counter-Reformation took hold after 1626. Jesuit preachers arrived in 1632. In 1706–07 the nave was extended and remodelled in Baroque style, replacing the old tower with a new one. Joseph II’s reforms closed the nearby Capuchin monastery in 1785, and the parish moved into its church, leaving the Nikolaikirche empty. It was then used as a grain store before being converted into a house in 1824. Today a small memorial chapel marks the church’s former site beside the town hall. The 1985 Nikolaikapelle is a square granite building with stepped copper roof. Inside, an installation by Hans Hoffmann-Ybbs and relics from old Urfahr recall the vanished church. The surrounding area forms part of the modern civic quarter, a quiet contrast to the vanished Gothic landmark.