Filialkirche St. Florian bei Helpfau

The Roman Catholic branch church of St Florian stands in the village of St Florian bei Helpfau, part of the Helpfau-Uttendorf municipality in Upper Austria. It belongs to the Mattighofen deanery in the Diocese of Linz and both the church and its surrounding cemetery are listed monuments. A fortified enclosure with a wall and a Gothic gateway surrounds the site. The church began as a Gothic hall church in the fourteenth century, when pilgrimages to St Florian were first recorded. Inside, the Gothic ribbed vaults were later covered with rich Baroque stucco by Johann Michael Vierthaler around 1720. The tower was heightened in 1885 under architect Raimund Jeblinger, giving it an octagonal Baroque bell chamber and an onion dome. The high altar, signed I P M 1762, blends features of the Zürn and Schwanthaler workshops and shows the hand of a master known only as the Meister von St Florian bei Helpfau. The two-aisled nave leads to a two-bay choir with a three-sided end. Barrel-vaulted side aisles contain Baroque windows and a marble angel holding a candelabrum from the eighteenth century. Side altars date from after 1670, their paintings by Tobias Schinagl, while the organ’s painted shutters date from the same period. The church stalls and the sacristy door with its rich carving also belong to the early eighteenth century.