Katholische Kirche St. Rupert in Ramsau Kulm

The Kulmkirche is one of the oldest and most significant churches of early Christianity in the Ennstal. It is dedicated to Saint Rupert. As abbot and first bishop of Salzburg, he founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter and the convent on Nonnberg there. St. Rupert died around the year 715 in Salzburg and is buried in Salzburg Cathedral. The church's patronage points to a close relationship between Ramsau and Salzburg, which was probably due to the fact that the first church in Ramsau, built around the 13th century, was a filial church of the mother church of Haus im Ennstal. Close ties existed between the parish of Haus and the Archdiocese of Salzburg. The original church building is roughly equivalent to today's nave with a Romanesque core, to which the Gothic chancel was added on the east side in 1444. At the beginning of the 16th century, the people of Ramsau joined the Lutheran doctrine, which they officially professed after Joseph II's Patent of Toleration in 1781. In 1747, an independent vicariate was established at the Kulmkirche, which became an independent parish in 1859. The Catholic parish of Ramsau-Kulm is one of the few Catholic diaspora parishes in Austria, which was pastorally co-cared for by Schladming for a long time. The parish is looked after by Father Andreas Lechner, and the Catholic parish community currently numbers approximately 420 members compared to approximately 2200 Evangelical Christians.