Parish Church of Nußdorf

Consecrated holy Mauritius

The parish of Nussdorf am Attersee dates back to at least the 14th century. The parish was dissolved during the Reformation and later cared for by the Jesuits from Traunkirchen as a preaching church. Nussdorf was not a Catholic parish for over 200 years.

Despite the Counter-Reformation, the number of Protestants was very high due to the one-tier situation and is still the same at around 12% (Austrian average 5.5%). Under Joseph II. Nussdorf was re-established as a parish in 1783. In 1789, one of the oldest private schools in Upper Austria was established by the young Protestant community in Zell bei Nußdorf. The image of the Virgin Mary on the left has gained national fame.

In 1892, the painter Emanuel Oberhauser used a portrait of Emma Adler (1858-1935), the wife of Victor Adler, as a model for the face of the Madonna. The Adler couple spent several times in summer in Parschallen. The painter was able to counter the accusation that he had depicted a "Jewish" woman or a "red" (socialist) that Maria herself was also a Jew.

When the picture was first seen in the church, the locals reacted indignantly, Des is ja d 'Adlerin and not at Eichtel the mother of God. A legend also formed around the painting of the Virgin Mary, according to which the church was destroyed in a fire, only the image remained intact. Historical facts, such as the fire catastrophe in Nussdorf (1857) and the sensational image of the Virgin Mary, are obviously related here.

Of the original late-Gothic church, only the chancel remains today. The building was expanded in 1987–88. Following the church’s renovation, a single-manual organ with split stops and an attached pedalboard, modeled after the style of the old Spanish organ, was installed in 1998 by the Belgian organ builder Patrick Collon.

The structural reform of the Catholic Church in Upper Austria led in 2025 to the legal dissolution of the parish of Nußdorf am Attersee and to the founding of the new parish of Attersee, which is organized as a large parish with sub-parishes. Since October 1, 2025, the present-day parish of Nußdorf am Attersee and 11 other parishes in the immediate vicinity have belonged to this new Attersee Parish (formerly the Schörfling deanery). The individual parish communities are led by volunteer pastoral teams. The leadership team of the Attersee Parish consists of a full-time pastor, a pastoral director, and an administrative director.