Evangelische Kirche Bad Goisern, Evangelical parish church in Bad Goisern am Hallstättersee, Austria
Evangelische Kirche Bad Goisern is a protected church building located in the town of Bad Goisern in Austria. The simple structure features a small tower with a bell and clock, a main hall with rounded windows and doors, and an interior altar space with wooden benches.
A wooden Tolerance prayer house was built in 1782, one of the first such congregations in Austria; about 4,000 people attended its consecration on 28 July 1782. Under pastor Johann Georg Overbeck the stone church followed in 1813–1816, but authorities forbade any outward sign of a church, so windows and doors were given round arches against the ban. A tower was only permitted in 1857, and the bells were consecrated in December 1858.
The parish was one of the first Toleranzgemeinden in Austria: after Joseph II's 1781 patent of toleration, 1,645 Goisern residents declared themselves Lutheran, and about 4,000 people attended the wooden prayer house's consecration on 28 July 1782. Its first pastor was Christian Friedrich Salomon Kästner, trained in Erlangen. The present church, built 1813–1816 under pastor Johann Georg Overbeck, is still the parish church of the Evangelical Church A.B.
The church stands in the town centre of Bad Goisern, with the tower and its main portal on the northwest side, where the entrance is. The interior is a single wide hall seating 1000 people, with the organ on a side gallery above the altar area rather than at the rear. The apse cannot be seen from outside.
The building was constructed after the region shifted to the Reformation and symbolizes the community's resistance against returning to Catholicism. Its simple, honest architecture without unnecessary ornaments reflects the Lutheran philosophy of that era and the perseverance of local believers.
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