Kefermarkt Altarpiece

The winged altarpiece in the parish church of St Wolfgang at Kefermarkt was carved around 1490 to 1497 and stands about thirteen metres high in linden wood - three large standing figures in the shrine, Peter, Wolfgang and Christopher, with an openwork canopy of extraordinary fineness rising above them and carved wings either side. The carver is not known; the work is attributed on style to a master working in the Passau or Danube region. Its original paint and gilding have been lost over the centuries, so the wood is bare and the carving reads directly. By the 1850s it was decaying and Adalbert Stifter, the writer, then a school inspector in Upper Austria, campaigned for its restoration and oversaw the work - which is how a village altarpiece came to be nationally known.

History

Christoph von Zelking, lord of nearby Schloss Weinberg and adviser to Emperor Frederick III, had a new church built at Kefermarkt between 1470 and 1476, and in his will of 1490 left money to pay in instalments for an altarpiece to Saint Wolfgang; he died the next year and was buried in the choir, and a receipt of 1497, since lost, recorded the final payment. The Zelking family turned Protestant in 1558, the church was shut in 1629 and reopened by the Jesuits in 1667, and when it was restored in 1670 the altarpiece was reworked to Baroque taste, its wings fixed open and its superstructure enlarged with other Gothic figures; in the 19th century the writer Adalbert Stifter directed a major restoration (Wikipedia, Kefermarkt Altarpiece).

What to look for

• A thirteen-metre carved altar - late Gothic linden wood, about 1490.
• Bare wood - the original paint and gilding are lost, so the carving is read directly.
• An openwork canopy - the tracery rising above the three standing figures.
• Stifter's rescue - the writer's 1850s campaign that saved and restored it.

When to go

All year; church opening hours apply. An hour.

What to expect

It is one object in a village church - a focused visit, not a day out. The church is dim and lighting the altar may require a coin box. Services take priority.

Nearby

Freistadt's walled old town is north; Linz is south.

Key facts