Church of Sts. Primus and Felician, Bad Gastein

The Church of Saints Primus and Felician is located in the northern part of the popular resort of Bad Gastein, about 600 meters from the city's main train station. This Catholic church was rebuilt several times, and its modern building is in the neo-Gothic style in the years 1866-1876.

The first religious building on this site appeared back in 1122, but this medieval building has not survived to this day. New buildings of the church were erected in the middle of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century, while the last building stood for over a hundred years and was closed due to its dilapidated state in 1858. The construction of the new church building was supervised by Jacob Ceconi, a member of a family of Salzburg architects. The solemn consecration of the new church took place in 1878. It was consecrated in honor of the early Christian martyrs - the brothers Primus (Primus) and Felician, who accepted a painful death for their faith at the turn of the 3rd and 4th centuries.

 

History

The forerunner chapel was supposedly expanded into a church in 1122. The church was named as a pastoral church in 1639. Partly due to difficulties with the hillside, construction work was carried out from 1636 to 1639, 1659, 1673, 1699. In 1706 there was a church consecration. A church was built from 1720 to 1736 according to plans by Oswald Stuelebmer and closed in 1858. In 1866 the foundation stone was laid for a new church according to the plans of district engineer Pieschel. Jakob Ceconi was responsible for the construction. In 1876 the church was consecrated. Renovations of the church took place in 1953-1954 and in 1974.

The naming as Preimskirche is the local German form for Primuskirche and thus refers to the patronage of the brothers and saints Primus and Felizian.

 

Preimskirche

The neo-Gothic church building faces north, has a south-facing tower facade, stands on the eastern side of the valley with retaining walls facing the valley and has a basement. The stone-faced cuboid building has a single-nave nave and a choir with a five-eighth note under a gabled roof. Externally the church is articulated with stepped buttresses and a cornice and lancet tracery windows. The southern tower facade has buttresses flanking the tower and a chamfered pointed arch portal. The tower with a ribbed-vaulted tower hall has 4 floors, is articulated with 4 cornices, has pointed-arch tracery windows and closes with triangular gables with a pointed helmet. In the north-east is a two-storey sacristy extension. In 1953 Josef Widmoser created two glass paintings of the church.

 

Furnishings

The sculptor Jakob Adlhart built the high altar in 1953. In the center it carries a Gothic Madonna with a halo from around 1490, formerly situated in the pilgrimage church of Maria Bühel, and on the sides the baroque console figures of St. Virgil and Rupert. Jakob Adlhart created the two relief wings in 1953 with scenes of the martyrdom of St. Primus and Felician, on the left with Primus at the waterfall, flagellation, death in the Colosseum, on the right with Felician with a water jug, discovery of the healing spring by a stag, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. Jakob Adlhart also created the people's altar with a front view in relief in 1980. The side altars bear the figure of the Man of Sorrows on the left from around 1710, attributed to Meinrad Guggenbichler, and on the right a console figure of St. Joseph from the 1st half of the 18th century. Pulpit and organ are in the neo-Gothic style of the time of construction. Under the gallery is a baroque figure of St. Judas Thaddeus from 1750. A neo-Gothic crucifixion group stands in the choir. A picture hangs in the tower hall, a copy from 1846, with the legend of the origin of Badgastein.

The organ was built in 1874 by Matthäus Mauracher (sen.).