So Exciting! One Hour on the Scaffolding, Close to Ceiling Paintings and Stucco Work

On the photo above: the story´s protagonist, a nine storeys scaffolding in the Baroque church of Schlierbach Abbey. I have been addicted to climbing scaffoldings since I was a child. And am much more addicted if it is in an Baroque building, particularly in the breathtaking abbey church in Schlierbach.

This photo (on the right side enlarged part with angel) was taken from the organ gallery. It shows the immense Baroque beauty of the church´s interior as well as its height (21 m on top of the vault). Above the mighty entablature, in the upper third of the photo, there are two angels, left and right next to the sunlit windows in the midst. They are holding symbols of the sun and of the moon.

This is how the angel on the right side above the entablature looks like. On the photo below one can see that we were very close to her (I think it is an angel lady). By the way, she is taller than we are. I am not sure if she was amused when we came after the long time of calm and tranquillity she had there in the height of the church.

Only I climbed up to highest platform, the 9th floor. Though I am not afraid of heights I didn´t feel very comfortable as there was no railing.

One wouldn´t think how huge the stucco leaves and fruits are. And so firmly plastered. I couldn´t resist to slightly fingertip them (as art historian I was of course extremely careful) as I wanted to know if everything is so secure as it looked. It was!

This is the view of the ceiling, seen from the ground floor. I think the painting from photo number 6 must be the one on the far left on top. Easier to distinguish under the fresco paintings is that with Godfather-Godson and the Holy Spirit: the second from the left in the middle.

As it was the day of St Joseph when we went there, I was of course touched when I passed him by on the scaffolding, holding his baby son in his arms. So nice and so small … go back to top of this article and see photo number 2 (the one from the organ gallery). There are huge figures on both sides of the nave, about 3,5 to 4 m tall. St Joseph and his son can be seen on the right side close to the sanctuary.

Photos number 2, 4 and 7 by ©Josef Reiter.