Franciscan Monastery of St. Nicholas

The Franciscan monastery at Villach is a Franciscan monastery that looks for the parish of St. Nikolai in Villach ( Carinthia ).

Due to a severe scarcity of priests, Bishop Petrus Funder requested in 1886 that the Tyrolean Franciscan Province provide pastoral care for the parish of St. Nikolai in Villach through its religious.The first Franciscans arrived in the city the same year and settled at the Capuchin convent, which was dissolved in 1786.However, the monastery and its attached church were found to be in such disrepair that they had to be razed and reconstructed over the following several years.The majority of the construction expenditures were borne by the Salzburg secular priest, Stephan Dionys Cserveny of Zabor.Despite fierce opposition from municipal officials, the monastery was constructed in 1888, and destruction of the cathedral commenced in 1891.The church and high altar were completed in 1896, according to the ideas of Franciscan Father Johannes Maria Reiter.

Since then, the Franciscans have been dedicated to caring for the parish of St. Nikolai.The church was heavily damaged by a bomb in 1945 and had to be partially rebuilt after the war.The church was rebuilt numerous times in the second part of the twentieth century, and the crypt was modified for liturgical celebrations in 1981.

The St. Nikolai monastery and parish church was built in the neo-Gothic style and is 48.5 m long, 20 m broad, and 17 m high in the central nave. The church tower stands 64 meters tall.

Because the church was created under the sponsorship of the Tyrolean Franciscan Province, it was furnished by a number of well-known Tyrolean painters.

Villach, Austria