Parish Church of St. Martin

Parish Church of St. Martin is located in Villach on a hill on the right side of the Drau.

St. Martin’s church hill was previously occupied during Roman times.A church for the Franconian court was probably erected here soon after 800, and it was dedicated to the Franconian national saint Martin.In 979, the Villach court named a church, most likely St. Martin.After 1007, a church in Bamberg was mentioned.S. Martini’s ecclesia was first referenced in 1197.The promotion to parish status occurred in 1244. The Counter-Reformation began in 1594, after the church had been Protestant for a long period in the 16th century.The front building and the nave window were renovated during the Baroque era, and the onion dome was constructed.Landslides occurred behind the church in the fall of 1916, causing four meters of the churchyard wall to collapse.The church tower fell on June 24, 1962, as a result of a sacristy remodeling, damaging the nave and transept.Several Roman-era inscriptions and relief parts were discovered in the debris and are currently on display at the Villach City Museum.The nave was expanded during Ernst Ranner’s renovation.

St. Martin belonged to the Patriarchate of Aquileia until 1752, then to the Archdiocese of Gorizia, and since 1786 to the Diocese of Gurk.The parish territory covered Bleiberg-Kreuth, the Dobratsch ridge, and the entire area between Drau and Gail for a long time, with the exception of Villach within the city walls and the Church of St. Peter/Perau.After being merged into the municipality of Villach in 1905, St. Martin was elevated to the rank of parish in 1908.Auen gained independence from St. Martin in 1952, and the parish of St. Josef was founded. Völkendorf, Möltschach, and Judendorf were all split, and the Holy Trinity parish was founded in 1981.

The church is a single-nave structure with side chapels that seem like transept arms from the exterior and a recessed choir.The huge tower is located in the southeast corner of the nave, between the nave and the south chapel.There are tombstones in the open, two-bay porch, including a 1539 coat of arms gravestone. The Romanesque nave walls and the Romanesque tower were the oldest sections of the structure before it fell.The barrel-vaulted chancel in late Gothic style has a 5/8 ending.Cross-vaulted are the two transept-like chapels.

The baroque high altar is an aedicula altar with a broken corrugated roof designed by Joseph Preimbl in 1778.The altarpiece shows St. Martin’s stories.Johann Mayer sculpted the two sculptures above the sacrificial doors, Peter on the left and Paul on the right.The altarpiece is made up of a plastic Trinity group and angel figurines.

The altar in the northern transept was built in 1670. It is made out of an aedicule with staggered double columns on a tiny base.A shattered segmental gable with a beautiful cartilage cartouche forms the altarpiece.More cartilage can be found towards the base and in the entablature.A protective cloak Madonna with infant and two angels spreading the cloak are shown on the altar.Master Heinrich von Villach is credited with creating this wooden relief circa 1510.

A modest mid-18th-century altar with a white gold tabernacle can be found on the transept’s eastern side.The image depicts the death of St. Joseph. The altar is now used as a sacramental altar.The cross altar on the south transept’s east wall was likewise built in the middle of the 18th century.His image depicts Jesus’ crucifixion.

As console figures, there is a Baroque Ecce homo and a Vespers (Pietà) in the Soft Style from circa 1420.A baroque baptismal group crowns the contemporary baptismal font.

A large-format picture by Anton Blumenthal, presumably created around 1580, is on the nave’s southern wall.It is a replica of the 1540 panel painting of the same subject that is presently shown in the organ loft.The older photograph was obscured by the younger version, which was found in 1962.Both artworks depict the Reformation idea of law and grace, an allegory of the Old and New Testaments.The bronze snake represents the Old Testament, the mercy of God by the crucifixion, and the resurrection.