Neue Pfarrkirche Münichholz

Neue Pfarrkirche Münichholz is located in the Upper Austrian municipality of Steyr, in the neighborhood of Münichholz.Christ the King Roman Catholic parish church is located in the Deanery of Steyr, which is part of the Diocese of Linz.

Following Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938, the agricultural town of Münichholz expanded significantly due to the concentration camp annex Steyr-Münichholz.During National Socialism, the pastor of the parish church of Steyr-St. Michael, Josef Meindl, cared for the inhabitants in an unspoken and clandestine manner.In 1945, during Soviet authority, a place of worship was constructed in a barracks chapel.The first emergency church was constructed in 1945, but it collapsed due to a lack of building supplies.The historic Münichholz parish church was consecrated in December 1946, after building construction resumed in the summer of 1946.The Order of the Oblates had taken over pastoral care by 1947.The foundation stone for today’s new church construction was laid in 1964.Hans Riener and Helmut Kern, architects, designed the plans.

The church, which has been preserved in the dark gray of exposed concrete, features wooden ceilings and seats in a pleasant natural tone.The 41-meter-tall church tower sits apart from the church.The entrance is embossed with different cubes and has a concrete wall with no apertures appearing in the upper half.Light plastering covers the longitudinal facades.The inside is illuminated by a triangular ring of windows in the gable section of the moat roof.The west facade is made of concrete.A single-story, flat-roofed concrete extension to the south.Simple east-facing doorway with exposure through a narrow window band placed high on the wall.In front of the church is a free-standing, seven-story church tower consisting of two continuous concrete walls with no openings and reinforced by vertical concrete beams.The top level of the tower is shuttered and has a massive metal cross.To the south of the church lies the parish center, a two-story, flat-roofed concrete structure with rather big windows.