Pilgrimage Church of Heiligengestade
The pilgrimage church Heiligengestade was a Catholic pilgrimage church on the south bank of the Ossiacher See ( Carinthia ) in Heiligen Gestade (today part of the municipality Villach ).
A church in Heiligen Gestade was first mentioned in 1431. It was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary . According to a legend that was later played, the church was built on the spot where the Turks are said to have murdered several monks of the Ossiach monastery during one of their raids at the end of the 15th century . A source which is said to have healing powers and which rises behind the high altar led to the church becoming a pilgrimage destination. The soft ground near the lake made the church sink. Therefore, a new church building had to be built under the Ossiach Abbot Wolfgang Gaispacher (1510–1523). This had to be extensively renovated around 1700. The spring had already dried up in the second half of the 17th century and the church had meanwhile been consecrated to the Holy Trinity . In 1881 the church was closed due to dilapidation by order of the episcopal ordinariate and the state government. In 1891 the building was finally blown up.
The blown church was around 30 m long, the nave had a ribbed vault . There were originally three altars. The most important, a late Gothic winged altar, is now in the Teutonic Order Church in Friesach . The money from the sale of the altar in 1888 was used to buy the explosives for the demolition of the church three years later.
At the former location there is now a memorial stone and a small chapel with a statue of Christophorus.
Wayside shrine at the site of the chapel
back
Information board at the place of the chapel
supporting documents
- Ilse Spielvogel-Bodo: The Ossiacher See between yesterday and today. History, art, regional studies . 2nd edition, Kärntner Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Klagenfurt 1998, ISBN 3-85391-149-8 , p. 69f.
Web links
- 1885 (+/- 5 years) - The Church of Heiligengestade. Retrieved April 21, 2017 (old image).
Coordinates: 46 ° 39 ′ 27.4 " N , 13 ° 56 ′ 42.2" E