Neue Pfarrkirche Heiliger Josef in Bodensdorf

The parish church of St. Josef stands at the western edge of Bodensdorf in the Steindorf municipality, beside the Ossiacher See. Built in 1929 to designs by Hans Prutscher, the church faces north and is supported by two-tiered rubble buttresses along its nave. A rounded apse projects from the rear, topped by a square turret capped with an onion dome. At the south-west corner, a slender tower rises, clad in pilasters and ending in a metal cube and onion dome painted in 1931 by Josef Gruber with the four seasons around a central clock. A round-arched doorway of rubble stone gives entry to the tower. Inside, the nave resembles a ship’s hull, its wooden ceiling masking the barrel vault above. South-facing windows sit above continuous sills, and the south gallery juts forward on concrete piers. The apse’s curved surfaces narrow toward the top and receive light through concealed slits behind the triumphal arch. The high altar, from the church’s founding period, carries a crucifix flanked by angels in late Art Nouveau style. Modern paintings of the Holy Family and the Calling of Peter hang in the choir, while baroque-inspired figures of Mary and Joseph stand on the triumphal arch wall. A 1624 gift from Abbot Gregor Wilhelm Schweitzer brought a copy after Titian’s Martyrdom of St Lawrence, and the sacristy holds a late 15th-century carved figure of the Risen Christ.