Heiligste Dreifaltigkeit, Church building in Grainet, Germany

Heiligste Dreifaltigkeit is a church in Grainet, a village in eastern Bavaria near the state border. The building features a prominent bell tower and displays traditional German architectural forms with side aisles and a recessed choir.

Grainet belonged to the parish of Freyung until 1750, and the old Nikolauskirche, built around 1500, had become too small. The Passau innkeeper and shipmaster Lukas Kern provided 10,000 Gulden, and the church was built from 1747 to 1756 under the Passau master builder Severin Goldberger. The tower was added in 1887/88.

The high altarpiece came from the former Franciscan church in Passau, acquired in 1823; the sculptor Mathias Högenwald had made it in 1681. Its oval image shows Mary surrounded by cherubs, flanked by oversized Franciscan saints. At the entrance hang portraits of the founders Lukas and Anna Theresia Kern, next to old gravestones.

The church stands in the village centre of Grainet, in the Freyung-Grafenau district of Lower Bavaria. The tower, added in 1887/88 and holding four bells, is the easiest landmark to orient by. The interior was last renovated in 1999, the exterior in 1992. The nave is entered from the west, with a double gallery in the west bay.

The high altarpiece was bought in 1823 from the dissolved Franciscan church in Passau; the sculptor Mathias Högenwald had built it in 1681. Its oval image shows Mary surrounded by cherub heads, and the altarpiece is signed by Franz Ignaz Bendl, though the signature was painted over in later restorations.