city parish church

The parish of Krems dates back to a bequeathal of Emperor Heinrich II in 1014 and initially had a very extensive reach in its capacity as a "mother parish". It was not until 1178 that the church was named for St. Vitus (Veit in German), which has led to the hypothesis that the oldest parish church was located on the site of the present-day Piarist (Frauenberg) church (see that page) and was dedicated to St. Stephen.

The only part of the medieval church still preserved is the lower part of the tower, dating to the early 13th century. The old church was in such poor condition that it was razed and replaced by a new one (built 1616 to 1630) based on plans of the Milan architect Cypriano Biasino. The exterior has the severity of an Early Baroque structure but the interior dates from the 18th century. Two artists were instrumental in shaping this interior: Josef Matthias Götz, a sculptor and architect from Passau, who executed the choir stall and pulpit from 1733 onward, and Martin Johann Schmidt, known as Kremser Schmidt, who painted the ceiling frescos in 1787. The picture at the main altar was done earlier (1734) by Johann Georg Schmidt (Wiener Schmidt), an older contemporary of Kremser Schmidt but no relation to him. Of special note is the side altar of black marble in the left transept. It was originally in the Chapel of the Little Fountain (Bründlkapelle) at the Capuchin monastery in Und and was moved to its present location in 1796 when that monastery was dissolved. The small Madonna statue (Bohemian, ca. 1420), revered as Mary of the Little Fountain (Maria Bründl) and the centerpiece of the veneration of the Virgin Mary at the Und monastery, also found its way to the parish church and was placed at this altar.

On the northeast side of the church is a small attached chapel built in 1739 to house a group of figures entitled St. Anne Teaching Holy Mary to Read. It is a stone sculpture from the first half of the 14th century and, as a document of the Late Gothic Period, has a very special place in the development of the arts in Krems.

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