Bürgerspitalkirche (Graz)

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Bürgerspitalkirche
Inner courtyard of the former citizens' hospital
Former citizen hospital
Citizens Hospital Church of St. Spirit (including furnishings)

The Bürgerspitalkirche zum Heiligen Geist is a Roman Catholic church in the 5th  Graz district of Gries . Today it is the beneficiary at the Church of the Holy Spirit in the Bürgerspital , which is owned by the Graz-St. Andrä is subordinate to, and belongs to the dean's office Graz-Mitte of the city ​​church Graz .

The former citizens' hospital

Due to the overpopulation of Graz within the city walls, the Mur suburb was founded on the right bank of the Mur . Where the districts of Gries and Lend are today, there used to be workers and the poor who needed medical care. Since the care of the sick has been in the hands of religious orders since the Middle Ages, the management of the Hospitalum ad sanctum spiritum by a hospital master, a maiden's wife and several assistants as a secular institution is astonishing. The facility was called Spittel in der Au and it was mainly the sick, orphans, widows, pilgrims and neglected children who were accepted. The hospital was one of the oldest in Graz - it had existed since the 14th century - and was closed by Emperor Joseph II .

Today, the church belongs to the city of Graz (as the legal successor to the Bürgerspitalstiftung ), and is a canonical beneficiary . Pastoral care was handed over to the Austrian military ordinariate . Church rector is currently the military dean and charity curate Christian Rachlé , pastor of Preitenegg (Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt).

The Bürgerspitalstiftungshaus (Annenstrasse 19, 21, 21a, 21b), as well as the church and its furnishings (Dominikanergasse 8) are listed as historical monuments.

Architecture and design of the church

As early as 1461, Emperor Friedrich III. the hospital the building site for the church, which was consecrated in 1498. After the originally wooden ridge was destroyed , the church received its current stone tower. It was built according to plans by Josef Carlone . The furnishings are predominantly baroque with some remains from the time it was built. The Bürgerspitalkirche was built in the late Gothic style and subsequently received a late Baroque high altar and a tabernacle from the Rococo period . The tabernacle is decorated with a candlestick crown; Furthermore, there are depictions of the Holy Trinity , the two saints Elisabeth and Barbara and a picture by the painter Franz Ignaz Flurer , which shows the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Works of art worth mentioning are a Gothic Madonna made of natural stone and a late Gothic carving depicting a vision of St. Bernard of Clairvaux . The pulpit of the Bürgerspitalkirche is decorated with depictions of Noah's Ark , the book with the seven seals and a chalice.

literature

  • Alois Kölbl, Wiltraud Resch: Paths to God. The churches and synagogue of Graz. 2nd, expanded and supplemented edition. Styria, Graz 2004, ISBN 3-222-13105-8 , p. 157f.

Web links

Commons : Bürgerspitalkirche, Graz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Web link kath-kirche-graz.org

Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 13.5 ″  N , 15 ° 25 ′ 45.9 ″  E