Michaelskirche (Gratkorn)
The St. Michael's Church is the former evangelical branch church in the village of Gratkorn in Styria . It was built in 1960 and served as a place of worship until 2017. Today the listed building is used as a residential building until 2016.
location
The former church is located at Kirchenweg 13 in the church district of the market town of Gratkorn.
history
In the 1950s, as part of the expansion of the Leykam-Josefsthal paper factory, the barrack, which had served as a place of worship for around 400 Protestants in Gratkorn since 1900 , had to be demolished, so the parish of Peggau decided to build a new church in 1959. The financing of the new building turned out to be difficult, as the Heiliggeistkirche in Judendorf-Straßengel had already been built by the parish in 1958 . Funds came from the Leykam company, the community of Gratkorn, the Chamber of Labor , the church aid associations in Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland and Austria, as well as donations from local believers.
The construction was carried out by the construction company Franz Oswald according to plans by the architect Oskar Sgustav. The church was consecrated on December 11, 1960. After the new building, the parish went up economically and financially and around 18 percent of local Protestants attended the church. But shortly after the new Protestant law was passed in 1961, there was a decline in church attendance, which over the years leveled off at around two to three percent of domestic Protestants. The population of Protestants also fell, so that in 2009 there were only 220 Protestants in Gratkorn who visited the newly renovated Heiliggeistkirche in Judendorf-Straßengel. This presented the parish with the difficult task of financing the maintenance of the church, which is why they sold the building in 2017. The former church was rebuilt and is now used as a residential building.
description
The outside simple church with an open bell tower was built according to plans by Oskar Sgustav. The church bell comes from the parish of Friedrichshall near Knochendorf in Baden-Württemberg.
On the altar wall was a crucifixion group made of lime wood by Erich Unterweger , which the Styrian state government donated. The ambo was adorned with a relief that showed the fight of the Archangel Michael against the dragon. The principles as well as the church stalls went to the Christ Church in Kapfenberg after the church was sold .
swell
- Burr grain. www.evang-peggau.at, accessed on July 11, 2018 (German).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Styria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento from June 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) . Federal Monuments Office , as of June 21, 2016 (PDF).
- ↑ a b c d Gratkorn. www.evang-peggau.at, accessed on July 11, 2018 (German).
- ↑ a b Discontinued: For possible use. www.evang-kapfenberg.at, accessed on July 11, 2018 (German).
Coordinates: 47 ° 8 ′ 9.3 " N , 15 ° 20 ′ 23.4" E