Pfarrkirche Diersbach

Opening timesDaily between 8.00 and 18.00 Guided tours by arrangement with the Diersbach parish office (Tel. 0676/87765308 The Diersbach parish church stands on a hilltop, which was part of a fortification in the Middle Ages, whereby the terrain was partly formed by nature and partly artificially. The first church probably originated from the Frankish mission or the Carolingian palaces and was built in the 8th or 9th century. Diersbach itself is first mentioned in a document around 830/833 ("Thisarespach")At the beginning of the 15th century, the church was rebuilt as a single-nave Gothic building, with Bishop Leonhart von Laiming of Passau solemnly consecrating the new St Martin's Church on St Mark's Day in 1432. After the church roof and the spire of the church tower fell victim to the flames in a major fire on 15 October 1716, the church was baroqueised. This gave the church tower its current appearance with the octagonal top and the baroque sphere ("onion"). Nevertheless, much of the church is still Gothic today, such as the ribbed vaulting, the Gothic profiled entrance portals and the Gothic fittings on the old door leaves. The rich Baroque interior decoration includes the main altar and the two side altars (the altar of St Sebastian dates back to the plague period) as well as the figures of St Florian and St Michael the Archangel, both from the workshop of Thomas Schwanthaler. The interior of the church is also characterised by its excellent acoustics. This is why it is often the venue for outstanding concerts. The Dr Karl Mayr organ is another jewel in the Diersbach parish church's crown. The organ is not only the second largest in the district of Schärding and the fourth largest in the Innviertel region, but with its medium-tone, baroque tuning system, it is something quite exceptional in the entire Austrian organ landscape. It was made possible by Dr Karl J. Mayr from Vienna, who, as a native of Diersbach who played the organ in Diersbach as a student, financed a large part of the costs. As part of the Innviertel organ tour, renowned international organ virtuosos regularly play on this royal instrument, and a special feature of the parish church is the "leaning tower of the Innviertel". As the church was partly built on terrain that was heaped up in the Middle Ages as part of a defence system, the area around the church tower has settled over the centuries. Although the foundations were repaired in 1926 after the church was closed, the leaning continued to increase. In 1989, the church tower was finally saved from toppling over by stabilising the church foundations and the subsoil - the renovation cost around 8 million schillings, and the slope was also secured against further landslides by means of inclined anchors. Although the tower is no longer leaning, it is now tilted by around one metre to the west.