Bauhütte#
Building Lodge, a term designating medieval lodges uniting stonemasons, sculptors and structural engineers who were involved in the construction of large churches; the individual lodges were strictly organised according to their own rules; peak during the 13th and 14th centuries, reorganisation attempted at the Regensburg assembly (Regensburger Huettentag) of 1459; The privileged corporation was dissolved in 1731, its customs and symbols were partly taken over by the Freemasons. Of great importance for Austrian architecture in the 14th and 15th centuries was the Building Lodge of St. Stephen´s Cathedral in Vienna, which influenced lower-ranking Building Lodges in Austria (e.g. in the towns of Admont, Salzburg, Hall in Tirol and Lienz), Upper and Lower Bavaria, Bohemia, Moravia, and in regions further down the River Danube. Members and masters of the Vienna Building Lodge (M. Chnab, H. Puchspaum and others) erected numerous churches, as in Pulkau, Eggenburg, Baden, Deutsch-Altenburg, Perchtoldsdorf, Moedling and Steyr.
Literature#
G. Binding, Bauhuette, Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. 1, 1980; G. Brucher, Gotische Baukunst in Oesterreich, 1990.