Pfarrkirche Lunz am See: Lunz Parish Church, Austria
There is a special joy in seeing something that one has only read about for years. I experienced this joy in Lunz am See, Austria, last week. This tiny town in Lower Austria, not far from the crystal-clear lake of Lunzersee, has a quaint parish church that was built around 1502. It is described both as a Marienkirche (a church dedicated to the Mother of God) and as a church dedicated to the Three Kings.
The exterior is typical of churches in the region: Gothic architecture with a high vaulted roof rising far above its small footprint, and a steeple loosely resembling a Byzantine onion dome. Atop the steeple is the double-barred patriarchal or archiepiscopal cross, a common symbol in lands once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The interior is especially unusual in that it has two high altars of equal scale in the sanctuary: one with statues of the Three Kings and the other with the locally famous “Mary in the Golden Chair” statue. Moreover, one can tell from the protruding wall in the middle, which changes the shape of the apse from a semicircle to the top of a Valentine’s Day heart, that a double altar was part of the original architectural plan. “To this day,” the parish website remarks, “there is no convincing explanation for the two naves.” If anyone knows the reason for this peculiar arrangement, please chime in below.
What also caught my eye was a genuine Holy Ghost Hole, as opposed to a Baroque organ-sound hole masquerading as such. I could tell that it was the real thing because I could see sunlight peeping through the church roof above the hole, despite the fact that the hole is now partially covered by electric lights. No doubt it has been a while since the hole has been used for its original purpose (as the means of throwing rose petals or lit straw into the nave during the Mass on Pentecost), but its continued existence testifies to a long and storied tradition of folk Catholicism.
And as a sidenote, despite holding on to many salutary traditions (such as shops being closed on Catholic high holy days like Ascension Thursday), Austria is not exactly experiencing a “new Pentecost” among its population. One small step in the right direction would be to bring back more traditions like the Holy Ghost Hole.
