Münzgrabenkirche

Münzgrabenkirche

The Münzgrabenkirche , the Fatima Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or the Graz-Münzgraben parish church , is a Catholic church in Graz , built between 1952 and 1960 according to the plans of the Austrian architect Georg Lippert .

It is named after the famous Portuguese pilgrimage site of Fátima . The building is located on Münzgrabenstrasse in the sixth Jakomini district of Graz . It is the parish church of the Graz-Münzgraben parish in the Graz-Süd deanery of the City Church of Graz and until 2013 was the seat of the Dominican Convention for the Immaculate Heart of Mary , a branch of the Dominican  OP in the southern German province of the order.

History of the Convention and the Church

Detail: St. Michael on the gable of the nave (in the snow)

On the site of the current church building there was originally an Augustinian Barefoot Monastery and a St. Anna Church , in which the clergyman and writer Abraham a Sancta Clara also worked, since the 17th century . In 1807, under the reign of Emperor Joseph II , the monastery complex fell to the Dominicans , who had previously resided at the parish church from 1466–1585 and at St. Andrew's Church from 1586–1807 . In 1832 the parish and monastery were handed over to the Jesuits . After 16 years the fathers were evicted and a military hospital and a cholera hospital were set up in the convent house, which was rented by the military. In 1867 the Dominicans returned. On November 1, 1944, St. Anne's Church was completely destroyed in a bomb attack.

A little further south of the location of the original church, the new building of the Fatima Church and the convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was built. The Münzgrabenkirche, built according to the designs of the Viennese architect Georg Lippert , consists of a nave, a clearly separated choir and the side bell tower; the branch of the order occupies the side wings. On the south side of the church there is an Anne Chapel in memory of the old church that was destroyed in the Second World War . Construction began in 1952 and the inauguration took place on October 31 and November 1, 1960.

After that only a few Dominican Fathers were resident in Graz, the main task was to look after the parish, they provided pastors and chaplains, as well as hospital pastoral care in the LKH Graz and pastoral care for the elderly. In addition, the convent had a good historical library and ran the small Fatima publishing house of the Dominican convent .

After the fatal car accident of the pastor Father Max Svoboda on February 17, 2012, the South German Order Province of the Dominicans decided to close the Graz monastery as well as a Munich monastery (St. Catherine of Siena). In August 2013 the parish association Münzgraben - St. Josef was handed over to the diocese for care. Only one priest remains in Graz as a hospital chaplain.

Design of the church

The sacred building from 1952 has historicist features, but due to its reduced forms it corresponds to the functional, factual post-war architecture and can be seen as an early postmodernist work by Lippert.

The south-facing roof gable of the nave is adorned with a statue of St. Michael by Josef Troyer (1954) and on the choir there is a depiction of Jesus as a good shepherd. In the choir wall freko in the interior, the center is formed by an image of the Holy Trinity. Saints of the Dominican order are depicted on the gallery reliefs and the lower window frames. In 1997 the visual artists Gunter Damisch and Fritz Panzer redesigned the glass church windows. To the north of the tower is the rosarium with a circular spiral corridor and the small Fatima chapel.

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 , pp. 173-175.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Graz Convent . South German Province of the Dominican Order eV (dominikaner.org/op-sued.de)
2. ↑ The convent of our province ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , South German province of the Dominican Order 
3. ↑ Handbook of the historical book inventory in Germany. Digitized by Günter Kükenshöner. Edited by Bernhard Fabian. Olms Neue Medien, Hildesheim 2003. Online: Jordan M. Gebhard OP: Library of the Dominican Convent . Science portal b2i, SUB Göttingen
4. ↑ Dominicans say goodbye to Graz , Catholic Church on August 4, 2013

Web links

Commons : Münzgrabenkirche, Graz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of the parish association Münzgraben - St. Josef

Coordinates: 47 ° 3 ′ 40.8 "  N , 15 ° 27 ′ 8.6"  E