The Roman Catholic church Marienkirche

The Roman Catholic Marienkirche on Benediktinerplatz in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee was consecrated in 1624 and is part of the Franciscan monastery that was established at the same time and was later cared for by the Benedictines.The adjacent plaza is named Benediktinerplatz, and the church was previously known as Benediktinerkirche.

The Catholic Carinthian estates and the surrounding Franciscan monastery founded today’s Marienkirche in 1613.Consecration of the monastery occurred in 1617.Adam Kolnig and Johann Baptist Klöpfer designed the church, which was dedicated in 1624.In 1636, a fire severely damaged the church, destroying the high altar.The inside was unharmed by the big fire of 1723.The tower was restored in 1638, and in 1723 it was raised and outfitted with an onion dome and lantern.Johann Georg Rosenberg donated the Antonius chapel, which was built to the north side of the choir in 1650/51.The monastery was expanded twice, in 1672 and 1713.

From 1613 to 1806 the church was a Franciscan church.It was a Benedictine church from 1807 to 1903, serving as a Klagenfurt branch of the Benedictines based at the abbey of St. Paul in Lavanttal.The Benedictines were responsible for the shift in patronage.The Jesuits looked after the Marienkirche from 1909 till 1986.Pavo Dominkovic OFM is the current rector of St. Mary’s Church.

The church is a single-nave, unadorned baroque structure located to the north side of the monastic complex.The chorus has ended.The apse of the Antonius chapel is round.Between the nave and the chancel is an octagonal tower with a copper onion dome and lantern.The church’s windows are round-arched.The four-window north side faces Benediktinerplatz, and the Antonius chapel protrudes onto the square.

The nave features a barrel ceiling with lunettes supported by stone corbels; the cross ridges are tinted.Three baroque paintings, restored by August Veiter circa 1900, hang on the wall of the triumphal arch, depicting the Emmaus lunch and St. Peter and Paul.Johann Peter Wittini’s late 17th century heavy stucco surrounds the images.Similar stucco may be found on the cross vault of the choir, which houses a painting of the Church Fathers.There is a glorification of St. Antonius by Johann Kolb(1851) in the vault of the Antonius chapel, with angels hovering in the rounded apse.The stucco around the chapel entrances dates from roughly 1640, making it Klagenfurt’s oldest stucco.Pearl bars, palmettes, rosettes, and winged putti heads distinguish the stucco.The three-axle, barrel-vaulted organ gallery rests on Tuscan columns to the west of the cathedral.It has basket arch openings and bends against the nave.

The high altar, which used to be in the Antonius chapel, was built in 1747. It has smooth and twisted columns, and the altar image depicts the Mother of God with the infant and is a reversed replica of an Albrecht Dürer engraving.The painting has been displayed at the church since 1706.St. Anthony Hermitage and Florian are the altar’s side figures.A carved relief portraying St. John’s vision on Patmos may be found on the altar’s upper floor.

The two 1738/39 side altars are of the same design and are built of stucco marble.The altar sheet on the left, by Ida Culoz (1843), depicts the Holy Family, while the upper portion depicts God the Father.An picture of Saint Ignatius hangs in the canteen.The right side altar features a crucifixion painting by Josef Ferdinand Fromiller, the top painting depicts Christ’s resurrection, and the canteen has a miracle painting by Maria Genazzano (1761).

Josef Stauder (1851) designed the Antonius chapel’s classical high altar and tabernacle.August Veiter created the St. Anthony altarpiece around 1900.Franz Xaver Renn of Imst created the figures of St. Benedict and St. Francis.Alois Winkler’s Pietà dates from circa 1900. There are images of St. Johannes Nepomuk, Benedikt, and Anna with their children.

The pulpit (about 1760) depicts prophets perched on the parapet in white poliment, while the soundboard depicts the Franciscan saint Johannes Capistran as well as personifications of the three virtues, faith, hope, and love.The organ case was made in 1777.

A great number of tombstones and memorial stones depict upper society immediately following the Counter-Reformation.The Stations of the Cross images are most likely from Fromiller’s school.The Diocesan Museum houses a Romanesque standing cross that was once displayed in the church.