Parish Church Diex
The Diex parish church is one of the best preserved fortified churches in Carinthia and is located in the center of Diex on the southern slope of the Saualpe . It is dedicated to St. Martin .
history
The church was first mentioned in a Gurker Urbar in 1326 , but the beginnings go back to the time before 1168. It was a branch church of the parish Sankt Margarethen ob Töllerberg until it was elevated to the parish church in 1379. The patronage of Saint Martin was first mentioned in 1387. Early 14th century, the building was extended and the St. Michael consecrated Karner built. During the time of the Turkish threat (1470 - 90) the massive fortification with battlements and mighty corner towers was built. The Gothic choir probably dates from the time after the Turkish invasion and the Hungarian occupation in 1490. In the Baroque period, the orientation of the church was rotated from east to north by an extension building across the choir. In the first construction phase, the nave and west tower were built around 1645. Around 1778 the design of the south facade and the interior decoration followed.
Weir system
The church is enclosed by an early modern circular wall about five meters high with an irregular hexagonal floor plan. There are 3/4 round towers at the kinks in the east and west. In the northeast corner of the weir system there is a trapezoidal gate structure with loopholes and barrel vaults. Above the profiled portal on the outside there is a late Gothic crucifixion group created around 1515, on the inside there is a building capstone with the designation 1535. The door of the gate building is equipped with loopholes. The wooden covered battlement with a shield wall and throwing gap, which can be covered by movable beams, is still well preserved. In the south, the rectory adjoins the defensive wall.
Church building
The mighty, baroque, renovated double tower complex is based on a Romanesque core from the 13th century in the area of the two tower ground floors. The vestibule portal in the west tower dates from the late 15th century, it is richly profiled with round and pear rods and has a straight lintel and a bezel . The Gothic east tower, which is essentially Romanesque, is supported by buttresses. On the original choir tower, which is now used as a side chapel, you can still see services and vaults from the former end of the choir on the eastern outer wall . Inside the church there is the former pointed arch triumphal arch on the west wall and a belt arch on the east wall. Both towers have pointed arched, coupled sound windows and hexagonal pyramid roofs. In the fourth quarter of the 18th century, a somewhat advanced early Classicist facade in plait style was built between the towers . The two-storey facade with a volute gable that accentuates the center and rises up in front of a pent roof is structured by pilasters , window frames and niches. The effect of the facade is impaired by the canopy built on thick pillars in the 19th century. The polygonal baroque choir is lower than the nave. A Valentine's statuette stands in the keel-arched light niche of the choir wall . The choir is crowned by a turret-like bell tower that was renewed in 1996. The gates of the southern arched portal with fighters are iron-clad and decorated with double-headed eagles and IHS monograms . In 1993 an early Baroque fresco of Christophorus was uncovered on the south side of the church . All roofs are covered with stone slabs.
The nave is vaulted by a barrel with stitch caps and divided into two yokes by a wide belt arch . A retracted choir with cone adjoins the nave . The inner walls are structured by pilasters with Rococo ornamentation and two niches. The three-axis, strongly swinging south pore is accessible from the outside through an iron-clad door.
Facility
High altar
The high altar from the 18th century houses the statue of St. Martin in the bishop's robe in the slightly elevated central niche, which is surrounded by two spacially offset columns. In the pillars are the statues of St. Paul with the sword and St. Matthias with the ax, and above the sacrificial passage portals, Georg and Florian as the guardians of the shrines . The somewhat older relief reproduction of the Last Supper and angel figures adoring to the side can be seen in the altarpiece within an arched frame .
Cross altar
The idiosyncratic and seldom found design of a baroque cross altar in the eastern side chapel is extremely remarkable. Above an All Souls Predella stands the symbolic figure of faith in the central axis, surmounted by the dove of the Holy Spirit and the crowning figure of God the Father, on her right a crucifix, on her left the tree of knowledge with an apple that was picked by a woman with a child, probably Eve while a kneeling angelic figure refers to the cross.
The rococo altars from the 18th century were completely renewed in 1801–1805.
Left side altar
The central figure in the left side altar is a late Gothic crescent moon Madonna made between 1490 and 1500 . It is flanked by the sculptures of St. Christopher and Sebastian . In the altarpiece there is a figure of Christ in a niche and on the altar columns you can see St. Barbara with the tower and St. Apollonia with the tongs.
Right side altar
The group of figures in the niche of the right side altar shows the upbringing of the young Mary. This is flanked by the statues of St. Anthony with the pig and St. Leonhard with the chain. The baptism of Christ is depicted in the niche of the altarpiece . Next to it are Saint Catherine with her wheel and Lucia with her eyes.
pulpit
The pulpit dates from the middle of the 18th century. On the cover is the statue of Moses with the tablets of the law. A Holy Spirit dove is attached to the underside of the sound cover. A relief depicting the Good Shepherd is attached to the back wall with a rocaille cartouche . The three angels seated at the pulpit carry the symbols of the Christian virtues : the chalice for faith, the flaming heart for love and the anchor for hope. An angel carrying a crucifix stands on the pulpit.
Others
Sculptures of a painful Maria and a man of sorrows from the mid-18th century stand in niches . A picture from the 17th century shows St. Dominic receiving the rosary from the hand of the crowned Mary . The fifteen round pictures surrounding the main picture show the secrets of the rosary. The lettering of the circular pictures is like that of the Stations of the Cross from 1886 in Slovene. The cup-shaped baptismal font dates from the middle of the 15th century.
literature
- Dehio manual. The art monuments of Austria. Carinthia . Anton Schroll, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-7031-0712-X , pp. 162-165.
- Matthias Kapeller: Churches, monasteries and culture - meeting places in Carinthia . Carinthia Verlag, Klagenfurt 2001, ISBN 3-85378-539-5 , pp. 78-80
- Barbara Neubauer -Kienzl, Wilchelm Deuer, and Eduard Mahlknecht: Baroque in Carinthia - With a contribution by Eva Berger . Carinthia Verlag, Klagenfurt 2000, ISBN 3-85378-489-5 , p. 216
- Barbara Kienzl and Wilhelm Deuer: Renaissance in Carinthia - With a contribution by Eckart Vancsa . Carinthia Verlag, Klagenfurt 1996, ISBN 3-85378-438-0 , p. 203.
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 44 ′ 39 " N , 14 ° 37 ′ 0.4" E