After more than two years of work, the overall renovation of the St. Zeno church in Schönbrunn has been completed. You can only celebrate later.
Schönbrunn - Cold, heat, moisture and dryness have significantly affected the parish church of St. Zeno Schönbrunn inside and out over the decades. The parish had therefore already started an extensive overall renovation in 2018. Now the church shines again in all its beauty. The very last work on the interior has just been completed.
The measures cost a total of more than 300,000 euros, church caretakers Anton Daumoser and Mesner Jakob Mühlhuber reported when visiting the home newspaper. The church patron saint in April was actually planned for the big day to celebrate the completion of the renovation with the faithful, Daumoser reported. People were looking forward to the festive service with Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard Haßlberger. But nothing came of it, because the new organ was also to sound, the acquisition of which was delayed. Work on the new church instrument has been going on for two months.
Then the Corona crisis came and the church had to close completely. Christmas, the hope is currently, the renovation will then be concluded with a party and feast with Auxiliary Bishop Haßlberger. But it could also be next year, Daumoser fears. After all, Corona managed to ensure that the restoration work that had been going on since October 2019 in the last closed church could go ahead undisturbed.
Angelika Graßmann, a graduate restorer from Burghausen, was commissioned to preserve and restore the interior, such as the altar, figures of saints, pictures and pulpit. She went to work with great passion and joy to repair the damage. This will give future generations the impression and understanding of past eras and the beauty of places of worship, as in the "beautiful Schönbrunn church", says Daumoser.
The ravages of time gnawed at the colors and bodies of the saint figures and added pictures, altar, side altar, crucifixion group, pulpit, way of the cross and ambo, the restorer reported. A lot of detail and fine work as well as a feeling is required, paying particular attention to the original condition. The indoor climate changes the objects, wood begins to move, structures, frames and paintings change, Graßmann explained. She had learned that there was once a pastor in Schönbrunn who liked the church particularly warm and "preferred 25 degrees". Figures had become too dry and structures in the wooden core had shrunk, causing damage to the surfaces.
Other problems had arisen because, for example, irrigation water had repeatedly spilled from flower pots onto plinths. Sculptural work, such as broken fingers on figures of saints, was also necessary, but was done by carvers.
The total renovation of the interior will cost 61,000 euros. Half of it is contributed by the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Munich, the rest by the parish. The renovation and partial renovation of the room shell and church building was done and cost 95,000 euros. The parish received grants from the municipality, district, district and private donations and contributed around 300 hours of personal contribution. The parish will cost the new organ around 140,000 euros.
St. Zeno in Schönbrunn was built in the 15th century as a late Gothic building. In the 18th century there was a baroque interior, and in 1880 another longhouse yoke was added. In the late baroque period around 1680, the high and side altars fell. A special feature is a crucifixion group created by Christian Jorhan the Elder in 1832. A grave plate from Heinrich III von Schönbrunn († 1501) has been preserved.
HERMANN WEINGARTNER