St. Martin Castle (Graz)

St. Martin Castle (2007)

St. Martin's Castle in Admont around 1830, Lith. Institution JF Kaiser, Graz

The St. Martin Castle is a castle in Graz district Straßgang . It stands on a southeastern branch of the Buchkogel .

history

As early as the first half of the 11th century, St. Martin appears to be owned by the Aribones . Since 1144 the castle and the church have been recorded as provosts of the Admont Abbey, with parts of the property being donated to the Abbey as early as 1072. In 1557 it was converted into a renaissance castle. In 1638 the palace was rebuilt further under the master builder Peter Fasoll. The interior of the separately standing castle church from the years 1738–1740 is one of the main works by Joseph Stammel . In the 19th century, the large-scale park bei den Weihern ( proven ad Wiarn since 1185) around the source of the Bründlbach (see Eisbründl cave ) belonged to the castle, which was designed with numerous ponds, avenues and grottos. The building has been used as a people's education center since 1914 . The castle belonged to the Admont Abbey until 1936 and has been owned by the Province of Styria ever since .

Structure

The castle is a two-storey building around a square, somewhat elongated trapezoid arcade courtyard. There is a tower at each of the building corners. The portal arch on the side facing the church has a round floor plan, while those on the north and east side are octagonal. The octagonal ones each have 2 loopholes in the basement - bricked-up bricks that are visible from the outside. There is also a round bay window on the northwest side. Remains of the former moat can still be found today. An air raid shelter built in 1943/1944 about north of the castle was explored archeologically. Under the courtyard there was a coal cellar, which later served as an oil storage room and now as an art room KuKo - art in the coal cellar.

Castle Church of St. Martin

Castle Church - interior view

The church of St. Martin is probably the oldest documented church in Graz. The first sacred building is believed to have existed as early as the 9th or 10th century, and the church was first mentioned in 1055. Ownership changed from the Aribones to the Archdiocese of Salzburg and finally to the Admont Benedictine Abbey, which placed the building contract for the construction of the present church in 1642 . The sculptor Josef Stammel was commissioned to design the high altar in the baroque style. The otherwise simple building is dominated by this work of art. The side altars are dedicated to the Holy Family and St. Barbara .

Inside the church there is a very remarkable bronze statue of Mary with the boy Jesus created by the sculptor Alexander Silveri on the right . On the outside of the church gate there are four beautiful bronze reliefs (based on designs by Silveri).

The castle church houses a historic organ that was built in 1759 by the organ builder Caspar Mitterreither. The instrument has 6 registers on a manual (C – c ³ : Coppel 8 ′, Principal 4 ′, Flute 4 ′, Octav 2 ′, Quint 1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′, Mixtur II 1 ′). The lowest octave is designed as a short octave .

Today the church, which has long been its own church, belongs to the main parish Graz-Straßgang in the dean's office Graz-West of the city church of Graz .

literature

Robert Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria. An encyclopaedic collection of the Styrian fortifications and properties, which were endowed with various privileges . With 100 representations after Vischer from the "Schlösserbuch" from 1681. Stasny, Graz 1961, p. 24–26 (Unchanged reprint. Leykam, Graz 1995, ISBN 3-7011-7323-0 ).
Horst Schweigert : Graz (= The art monuments of Austria . = Dehio -Handbuch Graz. = Dehio Graz. ). Revision. Schroll, Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-7031-0475-9 .