St. Matthäus, Parish church in Asbach, Germany

St. Matthäus is the former Benedictine monastery church of Asbach, built 1771–1780 in early Classicism to plans by François de Cuvilliés the Younger under Abbot Rupert II Viola. The unadorned wall-pillar church stands above the Rott valley; its tower rises south of the choir under a low pyramid roof. Inside, five nave bays carry transverse barrel vaults, and the vault decoration by Joseph Schöpf dates from 1784.

The church was constructed between 1771 and 1780 and represents one of the last major monastic church projects completed in Lower Bavaria. It emerged during a period when such large-scale religious building projects were becoming less common in the region.

The high altarpiece by Martin Johann Schmidt, called Kremser Schmidt, depicts the murder of St. Matthew; the pulpit canopy carries St. Matthew among angels holding symbols of the three divine virtues, while the pulpit body shows the symbols of the other three evangelists. Tombstones of the Asbach abbots from the 15th and 16th centuries, notably Benedict Ziegler (d. 1508) and Adam Steger (d. 1511), remain in the nave.

The church stands above the Rott valley; the entrance is on the west facade, and the Roman stone of Caius Usonius is set up to the left of the door since 1915. The tower is attached to the south of the choir. The parish belongs to the Diocese of Passau.

The ceiling paintings still show original brushstrokes from the 18th century, making them different from many other churches of that era. Such direct traces of the craftwork from that time survive in this quality only rarely.