Pfarrkirche Schöngrabern, Late Romanesque parish church in Schöngrabern, Lower Austria

Pfarrkirche Schöngrabern is a late Romanesque hall church standing slightly elevated in the northern part of the village of Schöngrabern in Lower Austria. It is built of two kinds of quartz-bound sandstone from a quarry in the area that has since been completely worked out. The exterior of the apse carries rich figure sculpture known as the Stone Bible. The nave is covered by a pale barrel vault on stone pilasters, with a red carpet running between wooden pews toward the altar.

The church was most likely built between 1210 and 1230, possibly ordered by Hadmar II of Kuenring as an act of penance for his role in capturing King Richard the Lionheart. Over the following centuries, Gothic additions were made to the original Romanesque structure.

The carved stone figures on the outer wall of the apse tell stories from Christian tradition in a way that anyone walking past can follow. This kind of open-air decoration served as a visual teaching tool for the local community in the Middle Ages.

The church stands on a low hill at the edge of the village and is easy to spot and reach on foot. Take your time on the outside first, since the carved reliefs on the apse reward a slow look before stepping inside to see the wall paintings.

Excavations carried out between 1975 and 1978 uncovered priest graves from the 17th and 18th centuries as well as the original Romanesque altar table. That altar table is one of the very few surviving examples from the early building phase still found in the region.