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Before this first stone could be laid, many stones had to be removed from the path. In fact, it happened on Saturday. At St. Andrä am Zicksee in Seewinkel in Burgenland, the foundation stone of the first Orthodox monastery in Austria and Central Europe was laid six years after the fundamental yes to the monastery building.
The “Maria Schutz” monastery should become “a meeting place between East and West”, wished the Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan of Austria, Arsenios Kardamakis, during the ceremony, which was also attended by the diocesan bishop of Eisenstadt Aegidius Zsifkovics, the Evangelical Superintendent Manfred Koch and Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil participated.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I decided not to travel from Turkey in view of the crown pandemic. Two apprentice masons helped lay the foundation stone, referring to the fact that the diocese of Eisenstadt “generously donated” the property.
Kardamakis himself had shelved the project in the spring of 2017 because there had been sustained resistance from the local population. Less against the building itself, much more against the location next to an urbanization in the community of 1,400 inhabitants.
After a referendum in June 2017 with a majority in favor of building the monastery, Kardamakis called for a withdrawal from the retreat and returned the shrine to the St. Andrä building.
There is currently no openly displayed resistance, St. Andras Mayor ÖVP Andreas Sattler told KURIER on Saturday. Although he heard of a “note” being distributed in town, he had not yet seen it.
