Ebensee parish hall (benefactors' house)

THE HISTORY:
The Benehaus is a rather unusual building. The official postal address is at the bottom, whilst the main entrance is currently at the top, accessed from the church square. It spans four storeys and is built into the rock.

The local authorities were required to provide the first resident curate, named Ison, who was appointed in 1656, with a ‘comfortable place for proper accommodation’. Later, in 1710, the parish council granted permission for ‘the construction of a small building on the chaplain’s residence’.

In 1733, a second chaplain was appointed, whose salary was funded by a bequest from Mathias Khernegger, innkeeper and master miller, owner of the Hotel Post. This endowment was a so-called benefice. The chaplain and the beneficiary presumably lived in ‘the chaplain’s [extended] dwelling’.

Now comes a confusing story. In 1788, the Josephinian land register records: ‘Koch’s dwelling in Badergasse, with wooden huts and a herb garden, owner Anna Maria Kochin’ with the address Unterlangbath 16. The parish chronicle reveals that in 1844, Vicar Johann Ev. Kurrany purchased the ‘old Koch house’ and donated it to the parish, and it was only then that it became the benefice house. The address Unterlangbath 16 originates from the old Koch house. A baker named Christoph Schachenreüther is recorded at this address as early as 1678. One can only speculate as to where the ‘Chaplain’s residence’ was located. Incidentally, the parish church still does not have its own address today.

In 1940, all the priests had to move from the curate’s house to the vicarage because space was needed for the church choir and the music archive. The parish had terminated the lease on the previous rehearsal room in the old school.

At times, several families lived in the Benehaus, mostly sextons’ families. In 1948, the former flat of the sexton Johann Lüftinger was refurbished so that the public library could move from Marktgasse to the Benehaus. Thirty years later, it moved out again and relocated one house further along to the former Oberbank.

By 1951 at the latest, young people had moved in; they renovated ‘their’ rooms at little cost. In 1953, the ‘parish hall’ was officially approved; it had been refurbished at a cost of around S 100,000, and again in 1976 at a cost of S 40,000.

In 1975, Chaplain Windischhofer arrived. With his help, the Corazon youth group was founded and took up residence in the Benehaus.

In 1983, a complete refurbishment of the Benefiziatenhaus was completed at a cost of S 5,000,000. The parish had to raise a quarter of this sum. From then on, it served as the parish hall, with the parish hall itself providing space for many different groups.