Pfarrkirche hll. Mauritius und Maria, Oberleis

The parish church of Oberleis stands on the summit of the Oberleiser Berg in Lower Austria. It is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church dedicated to Saints Maurice and Mary. The first record of the church dates from 1135 when it was an Eigenpfarrkirche of the Babenbergs. Its development as a pilgrimage site began in 1607. In 1784 the church was suppressed, demolished in 1787, and rebuilt on the hilltop in 1807. The church is worth visiting for its layered history and fine architecture. The west tower from 1807 wears a bulbous dome and round-arched windows. Traces of the original Romanesque core remain on the north side of the nave. The late 15th-century south aisle still shows its buttresses and trefoil-headed windows. The 14th-century choir ends in a five-sided apse with gabled buttresses and pointed windows. The 16th-century sacristy chapel stands slightly higher and shares the aisle’s window style. Inside, the early neo-Gothic high altar of 1791 has three tall pointed arcades with slender shafts. The central niche holds a carved figure of Mary and the Christ Child, probably overworked in the Gothic period. On either side stand statues of Saint Florian and Saint Leopold. The sandstone pulpit from the 18th century imitates Gothic tracery and takes the form of a polygonal basket. The organ, built in 1936 by Johann M. Kauffmann, has sixteen stops, and the sandstone font rests on small columns.