Fischer Church Rust

The Fischerkirche (Fishermen's Church) in the statutory city of Rust in Burgenland is a former Roman Catholic fortified church and was dedicated to Saints Pancras and Giles. The former house of worship now serves almost exclusively museal and cultural purposes. It is located on a slight hill in the southwestern part of the old town. The building is surrounded by a churchyard, which was formerly a cemetery, and a defensive wall.

The name "Fischerkirche" only emerged in the mid-20th century and can be traced back to a legend.

In the 1950s, during restoration work in the Pancras Choir and the Chapel of Mary, frescoes from the end of the 13th and beginning of the 16th centuries were uncovered.

On the remains of a Roman watchtower, a small Romanesque church measuring six by eleven meters was built in the 12th century. The northern part of the west wall, the western part of the north wall, and the foundations of an apse are the remaining parts of this original church building. In the second half of the 13th century, the Chapel of Mary with a crypt was added as an independent part south of the Romanesque apse; it was endowed by Queen Maria of Hungary. Around 1400, the church was extended eastward by demolishing the Romanesque apse and adding a Gothic choir with a ribbed vault. Around 1515, the south wall of the original church was demolished, and the church building was extended to include the Chapel of Mary. In 1563, a sacristy was added on the north side, and in 1570, an organ gallery was installed.

The Gothic church tower was destroyed during the First Turkish Siege in 1529, rebuilt in 1575, and remodeled in 1719; in 1879, it collapsed and was not rebuilt.