Lourdes Kapelle, Krumbach, Modern Catholic chapel in Krumbach, Austria.
Lourdes Kapelle is a free-standing wooden chapel designed by Bernardo Bader, built on a sandstone base from Alberschwende. Its walls and steep gabled roof are clad in larch shingles, and it measures about 10 metres long, 5 metres wide and 9.5 metres high. Inside, eight wooden benches seat three people each, facing an altar area whitened with lime.
The original chapel dated from 1880 but was replaced with new construction that opened in July 2016 after more than a century of use. The local community played an active role in planning and building this replacement structure.
The chapel is the only religious building in Salgenreute. Its bell, kept from the earlier chapel, hangs above the entrance door and can be rung by hand from inside the prayer room. A Madonna statue from the previous church stands on the left side of the altar area, which is set apart by whitewashed wood and a step.
The chapel stands at about 710 m above sea level, roughly 1.5 km north of Krumbach's centre. It is reached on foot in about 45 minutes or by car in a few minutes, but there is no parking at the site. The Weißach river flows about 300 m away, and the ground drops almost 200 m steeply to the north.
The chapel won the Austrian Bauherrenpreis in 2017, along with the International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum and the Piranesi Award. The bell from the demolished 1880 chapel hangs above the entrance door and can be rung by hand from inside the prayer room.
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