| The Lieferinger Pfarrkirche or Liefering Parish Church St. Martin is a modern church building by the Upper Austrian architects Rüdiger Stelzer and Walter Hutter. The church was consecrated in 1980 by Archbishop Karl Berg. The modern building comes with a parish centre and extensive land. The origins of the Pfarrkirche St. Martin can be tracked back to the time after World War II. Many ethnic Germans were expelled from Eastern Europe and came to today′s Austria and Germany as refugees.
Many of those refugees that had made it to Salzburg settled in Liefering. The rapidly increasing population created the need for a new parish, which was formally founded in 1969. The church that was to be built here, however, developed over a very long construction period. The first phase was started a year after the foundation of the parish, in 1970. The parish centre was built, providing space for the community and the Catholic youth organisations.
In 1970, the first priest started to work at St. Martin. The parish community rooms were opened in 1972 and served as provisory church. Due to financial difficulties, the construction of the main church was delayed repeatedly. The necessary grants could be secured in 1978, the construction of the church started in 1979, it was opened in November of the following year. The church is characterised by the use of circles: The outlay of the main "nave" is a crescent, the freely standing tower has open, round walls. The Pfarrkirche Liefering has a nice chapel that is used for baptisms.
Today, there are approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Catholics who live in this parish, which includes large areas in northern Salzburg. In general, Liefering is considered to be a not-so-nice part of the city with a high number of immigrants; |