ÖSTERREICH | AUSTRIA |
Bundesland: Oberösterreich | Upper Austria |
Bezirk: Gmunden |
Traunkirchen is situated at an elevation of 433 m on a small peninsula on the western shore of Lake Traunsee in Upper Austria's Lake District.
According to a painting showing the foundation of Trunseo, the monastery was already founded in AD 632. The former Benedictine nunnery [right] was founded in 1020 and was the first nunnery in Austria. The Benedictine nuns stayed here until 1573. From 1622 until 1773 the monastery belonged to the Jesuites. The buildings of the monastery date from 1632. The Jesuits also built the monastery church in splendid Baroque style in 1632–1652 including parts of the older, Gothic church. The tower was completed in 1733. A treasure of the church is the wooden pulpit of 1753, carved in the form of a fishing boat with a statue of St. Peter. This refers to the biblical scene of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Matthew 4, 18–22; Mark 1, 16–20; Luke 5, 1–11) and the Lord's call on Peter, Andrew, John and James to be his disciples: "Henceforth you will be a fisher of men" (which became the motto of the Jesuit Order). Today, the church serves as the parish church of Traunkirchen.
The Johanneskapelle (chapel of St. John the Baptist) [left, no. 005: far right] was first mentioned in 1356 and was rebuilt in 1614.
The mountain depicted on glass no. 005 [left, background] on the eastern shore of Lake Traunsee is the Traunstein (1,691 m).
Lake Traunsee is 12 km long, 3 km wide, and 191 m deep. It is the second largest lake in the Salzkammergut region and the deepest lake in Austria. Just like on the Hallstätter See (see Hallstatt), a Corpus Christi procession is made each year with boats on the lake.