The Divided Church of Gmünd

 Near the town of Gmund in the Austrian state of Carinthia is the Divided Church (Getteilte Kirche am Kreuzbichl), so called because it is divided into two parts by a road. On one side of the street is the chancel and on the other is a two-story gallery where visitors to the church can sit and listen to sermons from the chancel across the street. This system is quite unique in this world.

On the spot where the church now stands, there was originally a roadside shrine called "Cruz am Bichal" (Across the Hills). These wayside temples, called Marterals, are common in Bavaria and provide travelers with a place to stop and pray. This particular martyrel stood on the road from Venice to Hamburg, an important trade route at the time, and Gmund was a popular stop along the way. Gamund is also the place from where the dangerous journey over the mountain passes began.

Anton Fritz, board member of the Gmund City Association, says, "The shrine may have been established along the way to ask for blessings on the journey or to say thanks for a pleasant journey on the return."

The temple also marks the boundary of the Gmündner Bergfrieden. Later, when this path was used to transport the condemned to the gallows, they stopped for a while in the temple and said their last prayers.

In 1748, the temple was converted into a chapel with a spire and double-sided staircase. The chancel is situated about two meters above street level, and is opened to the street side by a large round arch and protected from the street by an iron grill. Worshipers gathered on the street in front of the church. Eventually, a priest felt sorry for the pilgrims who often stood in front of him in the rain, and built a two-story building on the opposite side of the road. This building has two rooms with chairs and benches. The building is also open to the street and is protected by iron gates.

Services are now held in two buildings – the priest stands in one, and the congregation in the other. If a vehicle passes through the church during the service, the priest briefly interrupts his sermon. The road is now private so there is very little traffic anyway.

Apart from the peculiar divisions of the church, the church has another peculiarity – the original fresco in the sanctuary was based on a drawing by Michelangelo. The Italian painter gave the draft to one of his travelers, Orsile Della Volterra, who brought the painting to Gmund and decorated it as a mural in the picture gallery. However, in 1861, the Austrian painter Joseph Messner painted over it with oil in an attempt to restore it. The mural has been painted over several times since then.