Renovation of the church roof in Hohenpeissenberg is progressing

The renovation work on the roof of the Hohenpeissenberger parish church and on the adjacent building complex started with a delay in May.

Things are going well now.

The west side is due to be completed this year.

Hohenpeissenberg - "We are very satisfied," says church curator Ernst Schmidhuber about the progress made in the renovation of the roof of the parish church "Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ" and the adjacent building complex, which also includes the vicarage and the library.

"The company does it well and works very accurately." After the weather was mild in autumn, the roofers were able to make good progress and lay many roof panels.

The renovation work is to be continued until snow and cold make it impossible for this year.

Schmidhuber hopes that the west side, the side that can be seen from the street, can be completed this year.

The roofers would have started with the east side first, but those responsible in the parish would have preferred the quick completion of the west side, so that the church could look nicer at Christmas.

As of this week, churchgoers can again use the entrance they normally use.

It initially had to be relocated because of the renovation work.

As soon as snow falls, work has to be stopped until it has melted again.

Then the remaining roof panels of the church roof are covered.

Finally, there is the church tower, which requires special scaffolding.

When a report in the summer of 2020 showed that the roof panels of the parish church and the entire adjacent complex had to be replaced, the shock was great at first.

As reported, it was found that the roof panels contain asbestos and that these are slowly dissolving around 59 years after the church was built, releasing asbestos.

Those responsible at the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising felt it was necessary to act quickly and classified the renovation of the church roof as an emergency.

Nevertheless, it was still around a year and a half before the renovation work could begin.

Above all, the search for suitable shingles to replace the asbestos-containing panels on the roof proved difficult.

If only the appearance had mattered, architect Wolfgang Utz would have liked to work with slate, but the stone was ruled out because of its greater weight.

After a long search, the choice finally fell on aluminum as a suitable material.

Now that some areas have already been covered with the new shingles, Schmidhuber is very impressed: "It looks great," he says.

If everything goes according to plan, the cost of the roof renovation will be around 1.5 million euros, of which the parish will have to bear 225,000 euros.