Church of St. Johann

Church of St. Johann is located on a hill 560 meters above sea level.A. in Villach, above the Völkendorf neighborhood.The Völkendorf parish’s Roman Catholic holy structure is dedicated to John the Baptist.

St. Johann was first mentioned in 1331.During one of the Turkish assaults in 1478, the church was devastated.The church was Protestant in the second part of the 16th century.After 1600, the now-restored Catholic church belonged to the Arnoldstein Abbey, and afterwards to the Holy Spirit Hospital in Villach and the St. Kathrein Hospital.As part of the Josephine reforms, the church’s property was taken in 1785.

A substantially repaired single-bay nave, a 14th-century choir with a five-eighth note, and a reconstructed ridge turret with a pointed helmet comprise the modest Gothic church.To the south, a two-story sacristy is added.

In the chancel, a ribbed ceiling with a circular keystone sits on consoles.A modest Gothic sacrament niche can be seen on the south wall of the choir, and frescoes from the late 14th century can be found on the north wall of the choir in three zones.The slightly indented triumphal arch has also maintained traces of previous artwork.A console head with a grimace stands in the southern corner between the nave and the choir wall.

The late 17th-century high altar depicts Christ’s baptism on the altarpiece.A highly reworked artwork of the Crucifixion is on the nave’s south wall.The two Gothic saint sculptures were once enclosed into the south-eastern exterior wall.