Pfarrkirche hl. Ägidius, St. Egyden am Steinfeld

The Catholic parish church of St Ägidius stands on the village square in St Egyden am Steinfeld, a rural commune in the district of Neunkirchen in Lower Austria. Built for the care of leprosy sufferers, the church and its cemetery are listed monuments. The surrounding area was once a busy pilgrim route where many returned from the Holy Land. The church began as a small chapel attached to a leprosarium founded in 1151. After the Crusades, pilgrims brought back leprosy and the site became a place of isolation and healing. Records from 1170 show Richer and his son gave their estate to Vorau Abbey, the son’s anonymity hinting at his illness. At least nineteen grave slabs shaped like cross-topped mounds survive from the leprosarium’s cemetery. When the Knights Templar were dissolved in 1308, the church passed to St Ulrich near Wiener Neustadt and later to the diocese. Inside, the church mixes Romanesque and Gothic styles shaped by later centuries. The original nave and rectangular choir date from about 1230, while a Gothic tower was added in the 14th century. After damage in the 1683 Turkish war, the building was enlarged and vaulted in the early 18th century, turning the single space into a three-aisled hall with west and side galleries. A fine organ with eight stops was installed in 1902 by Johann Marcell Kauffmann. Below the floor lies a square baroque crypt reached by a stair uncovered in 1995.