Visitation of the Virgin Mary (Allitz)

The Visitation of the Virgin Mary in Allitz

The Little Church of the Visitation is situated on a mountain ridge terrace of the right-Gadriahangs in the fraction Allitz in Laas ( South Tyrol ).

history

Pottery fragments have already been found here as evidence of a settlement from the older Bronze Age . As with St. Martin on the opposite side of the valley, there was also a Christian sacrificial site here. There are no records of the Romanesque predecessor church, whose round apse pedestal can still be seen under the choir.

The current church dates from around 1640. In the so-called Burghof archive there is a record under the chapter "Church matters" which says that the church was also consecrated to the weather and water saint Ulrich von Augsburg .

“1633 April 4 Laas
construction of the Church of Our Lady Visitation to Elisabeth over the mountains and the holy bishop and confessor St. Ulrich ect. (That they pray for us that God Almighty in mercy and mercy forbade and turn away from us the unfortunate misfortune of the dreadful Lähn from the Gadria.)
The lawyer Christian Wallnöfer, also Christian Vellrohrer, Valtin Pelli, Peter Veilegger, Thaman Matscher, Andree Noggler, Hans Martin as set and decreed lawyers and builders have the bricklayer Hannsen Mining here at Laas:

- Build the church with all diligence

- To wall around the frame at the height and length of a meat staple of 6 work shoes, in width, in the base of four-half , and then from the base upwards of three-half a shoe.

- Pay for each meat fathom in the height and width shown in his master’s meal two guilders and thirty kreuzers

- Honoring his housewife 4 thalers

- The readiness should be brought by the governor and community, the master himself should break the big stones, lay the foundation stones and his servants apply and hand over the Merterich.

- When the frame is finished, measurements should be made and the fathom measure paid, but the master should accept the help of the builders and lawyers.

Witnesses to this thing: Mathias Stainer the Younger, village master; Uelerich Atmann, saddler; Gaudenz Kaufmann; Hanns Nessler, Pinter. "

Around 1650, a side chapel was added on the occasion of the plague raging in Vinschgau.

From the records of the various obligations of the clergy from Laas on religious occasions from around 1785, such as cloisters, church consecrations and festivals, it emerges that a complete indulgence was to be won at the patronage of the Visitation of Mary , as well as:

“... a pastor is obliged to go there with the procession and everywhere to celebrate an office without a sermon, according to a Father Capuziner, cum applicatione. For this, a church provost pays 1 fl. In money and the meal or for the same 45 kr. ought to be owed to kill. "

The Visitation of the Virgin Mary seen from Allitz

During this time, ten Holy Masses were held annually. On May 16, the feast of St. Johannes Nepomuk , always pulled up a large procession from Lasa, following a vow from the time when the Gadriatal was repeatedly ravaged by mudslides. The records show:

“On S.Johan von Nepomuk day let the common hold a procession to Our dear women in Allitz with the hegstn Gueth and the singing of the 4 Gospels Dar for 1fl. 30 kr. "

The many votive offerings and tablets testify that the Visitation of Mary must have been a much-visited place of pilgrimage.

For 1881 it is noted in the Lasa parish archives that the church in Allitz received a new shingle roof by Kaspar Kiffl. The costs for this amounted to 300 guilders.

The church day is on July 2nd, the feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary .

Building

The church stands in an east-west direction to the west and a little above Allitz. In the church buildings of this period it was customary to lean on the Gothic and therefore the building was provided with an octagonal closing choir and stucco ridges inserted into the vault, similar to the old net vaults . The reason for this may have been the price, as the stucco ridge vaults were considerably cheaper than the stone rib arches carved by stonemasons . At an unknown point in time, a barrel vault was used over lance caps and stuccoed closing fields.

Frescoes on the north wall

It is an architecturally not very demanding building with a gable roof and a small bell tower with a pyramid roof on the west facade. The roofs are covered with wooden shingles. Access is via a pointed arched door with two wings. There are several windows, three with a semicircular end, two smaller rectangular windows and at the foot of the bell tower in a niche a larger square window to the interior, which is closed with an iron grille and a wooden shutter. On the northern outer wall, just below the eaves, there is a badly worn fresco from the construction period of the church, which shows the martyrdom of St. Sebastian . The gallery has only a simple wooden parapet and is accessible via a stone staircase. To the right of the entrance is a plinth with an offering box made of Lasa marble , which is dated to 1682. The existing harmonium is in need of restoration. Above the sacristy door there is the inscription: "1666 Jar has Mathies M [a] tseher as paumeister and church provost to disen sager".

Mathies Matseher had also donated the St. Ulrich statue for the high altar. This dates from 1642 and was partially renewed in 1985 after a fire. The altarpiece is dark in color and shows the motif of the Visitation of Mary. Since the coat of arms of Count Hendl from Goldrain can be seen on the pillars on both sides , it can be assumed that they were the donors. The painted, original wooden antependium was used for the new popular altar and shows Mary's visit to Elisabeth. When the side chapel was broken into, the figures of St. Sebastian, Ulrich and Rochus and two chandelier angels stolen. Two remaining figures of St. Roch and St. Rosalie were then placed in the nave. The parapet of the semicircular pulpit shows the portraits of the church fathers on a marbled background, and there is also an inscription that the pulpit was renovated by Franz Daniel in 1854. The walls of the church are decorated with pictures, paintings and two votive tablets. A number of other votive tablets and votive offerings were removed and stored.

Two pictures in the choir depict Mary in community with St. Katharina and St. Christina, on the other there are St. Ursula, St. Barbara and St. Margareta. Both images date from 1661 and, according to the inscription, were:

"Other Pölli to Lorez and Christina Mätscherin his wife allhero adored and sacrificed."

Another painting with the Visitation of the Virgin in a mountain landscape bears the inscription: "Remigius Stulenpacher has this flat allhero adored Anno 1649."

Side chapel

In the small side chapel there is an altar from 1660 with a picture of St. Sebastian as the protector of the plague sufferers , supported by Maria with the child. The figures of St. Rochus and St. Rosalie stood left and right of it. The inscription on the altar indicates the founder:

"In praise and honor of the holy martyr Sebastian as his patron and Firbitter with the most holy God in dangerous best times, this altar was set up by Mich Karl Trappen Graffen zu Matsch and judge of this country 1680"

To the side of the altar are two wooden cupboards with glass doors and a statue of Mary clad in cloth. The larger one is likely to have been an image of grace and the goal of pilgrims.

In this "Nebenkirchl" the obligatory services for the donors were held every month, for which the pastor received 1 guilders for the year office and 36 kreuzers for the Holy Mass.

A bell with a diameter of 62 cm and a weight of 130 kilograms hangs in the bell tower . It was manufactured in 1925 by the bell foundry Luigi Colbacchini and Sons in Trento . It bears reliefs with angels and decorations and replaced the bell that was given up in the First World War . The parish provisional officer Emil Köger, appointed after the illness of Pastor Malpaga, confirmed that on August 8, 1925, he had received lire from Alois Kiem, downpipe farmer in Allitz, in 1960 to make the bell and handle, and that the bell was therefore his property. It is not known whether there ever was a second bell.

literature

• Gertraud Laimer Tappeiner: Churches of Laas, Eyrs, Tschengls and Tanas. Ed. Pfarre Laas, Verlag Tappeiner, Lana 2011, pp. 73–78.

Web links

Commons : Visitation of the Virgin Mary  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office

Coordinates: 46 ° 37 ′ 57.9 "  N , 10 ° 42 ′ 54.7"  E