If you attend Mass at the Roman Catholic Church (Kreuzbichlkapelle) in Gmünd, Austria, you might find that the pastor has to pause the sermon for an unusual reason: a road runs through the middle of the church. While the pastor preaches his sermon in the sanctuary on the east side of the road, the churchgoers sit in the building on the opposite side of the road. The church was erected in 1754, but because there wasn’t much space between the road and the slope, the chapel was built with the sanctuary about 6½ feet above the road, and worshipers gathered on the street in front of the church. Eventually, a pastor felt sorry for the pilgrims, who often stood in front of him in the rain, and had a 2-story structure built on the opposite side of the road. Services then took place in two buildings: the priest stood in one and the congregants in the other. If a vehicle came by, the priest had to pause his sermon until it passed by. Although the road today is not as busy, there's still the occasional interruption.
