Pfarrkirche hl. Jakobus d. Ä., Pichl-Preunegg

The Catholic parish church of St James the Elder stands in Pichl, a village beside the Enns river in the Schladming area of Styria. A church has stood on the site since 1258, when it was first recorded. The present building was enlarged in 1766 by the Kitzbühel master builder Andres Huber. In the 1970s the interior was restored and the exterior walls were given their distinctive curved window frames. Inside, the church is a fine example of Austrian Rococo. The high altar of 1775 was made by the Schladming joiner Johann Georg Engele. Beside it the side altars were built in 1770 by Paul Engele from Abtenau. The painter Florian Schmid from Krems bei Voitsberg supplied the paintings for these altars. The pulpit and the wall panelling were also finished in the same style by Johann Pirker in 1779–80. The churchyard contains a baroque crucifix group from the late 18th century. The building’s three-bay nave and narrower choir are covered by a barrel vault on flat wall shafts. A west gallery rests on four columns, and above the roof rises a small onion dome. The whole site, church and cemetery, is protected as a listed monument.