Neue Pfarrkirche Puchenau

The Pfarrkirche Puchenau stands in the village of Puchenau, a few kilometres north of Linz in Upper Austria. Built in 1975–76 to designs by architect Roland Rainer, it replaced an older church by the Danube that had become too small. The old church now serves as the cemetery chapel, while the new building forms the centre of a larger pastoral complex including a parish hall, youth rooms and kindergarten. The church is arranged around three octagonal spaces of different sizes and heights, each lit from above by towers of glass bricks. The main space has a stepped floor that slopes gently towards the altar, which is slightly offset to the east. The smaller octagons serve as the baptistery and weekday chapel, connected to the main space yet each retaining its own character. The walls are faced entirely in hand-made bricks laid in varied patterns, their earthy tones contrasting with the white marble furnishings. Inside, the furnishings designed by Roland Rainer include a tabernacle by Waltrud and Arthur Viehböck, a late-baroque crucifix in the weekday chapel, and a 1978 enamel relief Stations of the Cross. The organ, built in 1982 by the Upper Austrian Organ Builders of St Florian, sits in a clear acrylic case. The whole complex sits at the edge of the village, surrounded by meadows and the quiet streets of Puchenau.