“Defeater of all” Saint Pankratius’s name echoes through the ages. Today we stand before St. Pankratius. It is a Roman Catholic parish church. The church is in Holzhausen, a district of March in Breisgau. St. Pankratius and the other churches belong to the pastoral care unit March of the Archdiocese of Freiburg.
The village of Holzhausen was first mentioned in the Lorscher Codex in 849. The name comes from “House of Holtwulf”. In the 14th century, it belonged to the Schnewlin von Landeck family. In 1491, David von Landeck sold it with other possessions to Konrad Stürtzel. Stürtzel was the chancellor of the Habsburg Archduke Siegmund. In 1488 Stürtzel was knighted as “Stürtzel von Buchheim”. Holzhausen was thus an Austrian fief. In 1604, it came to Andreas Harsch. Harsch was the Upper Austrian Chancellor. His descendants owned parts of the village into the late 19th century. The Margraves of Baden-Durlach also had rights and obligations in Holzhausen. This caused friction because Upper Austria was Catholic. The Margraviate was Protestant.
An “ecclesia seu capella Holtzhusen” was first documented in 1362. This documentation was in the records of the Diocese of Constance. It was a branch of the Mariä Himmelfahrt parish in Umkirch. As early as 1275, a pastor is mentioned in “Buhswil.” Buhswil was a settlement north of Holzhausen that no longer exists. In 1606, Andreas Harsch had the church in Buchsweiler renovated. It was dedicated to Saint Adelphus of Metz and Pelagius. It fell into disrepair. It was demolished soon after 1790.
The first church in Holzhausen was built from 1471 to 1472. Parts of it are still preserved. In 1504, the Bishop of Constance separated Holzhausen from Umkirch. He made it an independent parish at the request of Konrad Stürtzel. In 1614, Conrad Harsch and his wife Anna Haitzmännin donated a baptismal font. Conrad was the brother and heir of Andreas. In 1681, damage from the wars of the 17th century was repaired. The current rectory was built in 1687.
In 1776, the St. Pankratius church was dilapidated. The roof structure was “mostly rotten.” There was another dispute. The General State Archives in Karlsruhe contain around four thousand pages of files. These files concern the construction of the church and rectory in Holzhausen. They also concern disputes between Baden, Austria, and the Bishop of Constance from 1713 to 1788. Goethe’s brother-in-law, Johann Georg Schlosser, represented the Margrave. He was accused of using offensive language against Empress Maria Theresa. Nevertheless, the church was rebuilt from 1780 to 1781. The old tower and the north wall of the nave were included. The church was significantly enlarged. Johann Gaißer from Freiburg was the master builder. In 1782, Auxiliary Bishop Wilhelm Joseph Leopold von Baden consecrated the church. The patron saints of the high altar became St. Pankratius and Apollinaris of Ravenna. Saint Joseph of Nazareth became the patron saint of the left side altar. Saint John Nepomuk became the patron saint of the right side altar. In 1814, Simon Göser painted the fourteen Stations of the Cross. In 1869, the church was renovated inside. Andreas Schill was the pastor at the time. In 1879, the cemetery was moved. It had previously been around the church. In 1988, a warm-air heating system was installed in the church. The church was restored until 1996. Michael Lerchenmüller accompanied the construction work archaeologically. In 1999, the church received a new celebration altar. In 2002, it received a new organ.
The St. Pankratius church stands on the western edge of the village. It is on the elevated site of the former cemetery. The cemetery is surrounded by a thick rubble stone wall. Visitors climb the stairs to the churchyard. The tower in the northeast corner has three stories. It is under a roof with a stork’s nest. The tower’s gable roof has a dormer window on the east side. The dormer window houses the tower clock with the large clock face. The two lower floors have only loopholes as windows. The top floor has pointed arch windows. The nave is a hall with three flat-arched windows on each side. The chancel is polygonal. Red corner pilasters structure the exterior. The exterior is whitewashed. Three small ox-eye-like windows open in the west wall. The keystone of the main portal bears the year “1779”. A flat ceiling with a surrounding stucco profile spans the nave. Two columns support an organ gallery. The two eastern corners of the nave on both sides of the chancel arch are rounded. The two side altars are angled. This creates a pull toward the chancel.