Michaelskapelle

The Michaelskapelle stands in Eichgraben, a village in Lower Austria’s St Pölten district. It is a simple Protestant church built in 1967 to serve the growing evangelical community. The building belongs to the Evangelical Superintendenture of Lower Austria and began as a preaching station of the Purkersdorf church. The chapel’s history reflects the post-war growth of Eichgraben. In 1955 it was attached to Pressbaum, a daughter parish of Purkersdorf, but services moved from the village school to a new site. Architect Friedrich Rollwagen, who lived locally, designed the church and oversaw its construction. Superintendent Georg Traar consecrated the chapel on 16 December 1967, and Bishop Oskar Sakrausky visited a year later. The final phase, including a house for the ecumenical sisters who moved from Pressbaum, finished in 1969. Inside, the chapel is a plain rectangular room with an exposed roof. A wooden bellcote rises at the gable end, and a circular window by Horst Aschermann behind the altar frames the surrounding landscape. In 1999 the Innsbruck foundry Grassmayr cast a single bell that now rings above the village.