Chapter 44 - Church on the Hill, Kleinhoflein

Kleinhoflein is a small hilly community, actually a suburb, on the west side of Eisenstadt. The churches in Eisenstadt are large and imposing, but as we drove around Eisenstadt, I kept seeing this smaller church off to the west, high on a hill like so many over here. We finally drove up a winding road to the church, named Kirchberg (hill church). It's a simple church, its architectural style pointing to construction in the 1600s like many of the churches here. I couldn't find out anything else about it. There's no name on the church, just "Kirchberg" and an arrow on a small sign at the bottom of the winding road.

This was taken from the bottom of the pathway. It's a long tiring climb, especially on a hot, windy day.


The front of the church.


The side of the church.


This is part of the old wall that encircles the church property.


This is the memorial for Kleinhoflein's dead in the two world wars.


This is the most intriguing aspect of our visit to Kirchberg. This tomb is placed against a wall at the back of the church property. She was obviously related to Joseph Haydn, maybe by marriage since they list her maiden name ("geb. [born] Holzmann"). I searched a lot but couldn't find out anything about her. It's a mystery, but we wondered if she was some kind of "bad girl."


We tried really hard but can't make out the date.


Against another part of the back wall are these four tombs. One tomb has a Haydn in it so we assumed the others are related, too. We couldn't find out more about them either. So are they poor relatives? One wouldn't assume that since the tombs are nice and being "buried on the parish" doesn't get you that. We wondered why they and Katharina are shuttled to the back of the church property at a church where Haydn didn't go himself (he's buried in an imposing church in Eisenstadt). Are they back here and close to Katharina's grave for a reason?


Two pictures of tombs on the side of the church.




Way off in the distance in the top center of the picture is Klingenbach.


Zoomed in on Klingenbach. Notice the towers and tall building in the front of the picture. They're from a nearby sugar factory that closed over 20 years ago.