Photo: Gemeinde Breitenbach

Pfarrkirche zum Hl. Petrus

Breitenbach, Tyrol

The current Church of St. Peter in Breitenbach is a Baroque parish church. Originally, the parish of Breitenbach belonged to the Diocese of Freising. Until 1891, Breitenbach was even the mother parish for the neighboring parishes of Brandenberg, Steinberg, Mariathal, and Kramsach Voldöpp. Since 1818, the parish of Breitenbach has been part of the Archdiocese of Salzburg.The parish church is first mentioned in a document in 1157. The late Gothic reconstruction took place approximately between 1480 and 1500. In 1737, a new building was constructed under the Breitenbach master mason Hans Hueber. However, the building has only shone in complete Baroque style since 1798, after the still Gothic tower was redesigned by master builder Georg Hueber. Nevertheless, medieval wall remains can still be found.The parish church has a south tower and is surrounded by the cemetery. Directly to the right of the main entrance is a Baroque cemetery chapel, which is used as a mortuary. The two-story sacristy was built in the southwestern part of the building.Inside the church, one finds frescoes and paintings by the artists Matthias Kirchner (Kitzbühel) and Franz Fuchs. The ceiling paintings in the choir depict scenes from the life of St. Peter (approx. 1740). The stucco framing dates from 1958 (stucco artist Rudolf Haas).The late Baroque high altar by the Rattenberg carpenter Jakob Diechtl features figures by the Bad Tölz sculptor Josef Anton Fröhlich. The two side altars – the left Marian altar of the Scapular Confraternity and the Joseph altar on the right side – date from approximately 1870 and were crafted by the local cabinetmaker Margreiter.During the last church renovation in 2002, the folk altar, ambo, baptismal font, and lights were also redesigned by the Breitenbach sculptor Erich Ruprechter (“Untermoos”), born in 1957. Between the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, which stand for the beginning and the end, Ruprechter uses the meander, a symbol for the flow of water, which here represents the flow of life.The imposing organ of the Breitenbach parish church was elaborately restored in 2004 by Christian Erler (Schlitters).