Kapelle Moos

The chapel stands in the hamlet of Moos, part of St Veit in Defereggen, East Tyrol. It sits high on a steep slope above the valley, looking down on the farmhouses of Innerkinn, Außerkinn and Gosser. A predecessor chapel once stood nearby, built without permission between 1809 and 1813 by the vicar Jud. After a fire destroyed the whole hamlet in 1867, the present building was raised in 1878 by an Italian mason who had never built a chapel before.

The chapel’s simple rectangle plan ends in a rounded apse under a shingle roof. A wooden bell turret with a pyramid spire rises above the ridge, capped by a cross and weathercock. The north-west door is framed by a small window and lunette, while whitewashed walls are broken by two windows on each long side. Inside, a barrel vault spans the nave, supported by a cornice that leads to a small gallery over the entrance. The altar platform is raised one step, holding a polychrome wooden shrine from the late 19th century.

The altar centres on an oil painting of the Madonna of Maria Luggau, flanked by figures. Wooden pews line the nave, and a brass chandelier hangs above. A painted wooden Stations of the Cross runs along the walls, while two 18th-century oil paintings show the Sorrowful Mother and Ecce Homo. The last bell was cast by Grassmayr foundry after the wars.