Othmarkirche

The parish church of Mödling-St. Othmar stands in the town of Mödling in Lower Austria. It is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Othmar and belongs to the Mödling deanery. The building has been under monument protection since the 19th century.

The church’s history reaches back more than eleven centuries. The first church on this site was built in the 9th century, and its foundations still influence the present building’s layout. Construction of the current Gothic church began in 1454 and lasted 69 years. It was twice damaged by fire during the Ottoman wars and rebuilt each time, once with help from Cardinal Melchior Khlesl and later under Marktrichter Wolfgang Ignaz Viechtl. In the 18th century the interior was transformed in the Baroque style, including altars and a new organ.

Visitors enter through a doorway marked by a 1454 inscription. Inside, six earlier churches lie beneath the floor, uncovered during 20th-century renovations. The high altar was donated by Maria Theresia in 1760, and the pulpit shows Pope Benedict XIII. The three-storey timber roof, 18 metres tall, is a masterpiece of carpentry. The church also holds the 15th-century grave slab of Duke Przemysl III of Troppau. Outside, two millstones high on the west wall recall Viechtl’s trade.