Saint John the Evangelist Church

The parish church of Wenns stands at the lower edge of the village in the Pitztal valley, Tirol. It belongs to the Diocese of Innsbruck and has been under Denkmalschutz since the 13th century. The church and its surrounding cemetery occupy a quiet spot away from the main road. The church’s history is marked by fire and rebuilding. After a blaze in 1564, the building was restored between 1612 and 1613. A century later, around 1790, the interior was renewed and again in 1929. These layers of change give the church its distinctive blend of Gothic structure and later decoration. Inside, the three-aisled nave retains its original Gothic ribbed vaults. The southern aisles were widened in the 17th or 18th century to create a hall church, supported by round-arched arcades. The high altar, a neorenaissance winged retable by Josef Bachlechner the Elder, shows scenes of St John on Patmos and St Wendelin. The ceiling paintings by Franz Altmutter and Toni Kirchmayr depict biblical stories and the rosary. The tower, dated 1613, rises on the hillside, its pointed sound openings framing the mountain air.