Cathedral of Saint Agydlus is a beautiful late
Gothic church in the historic town of Graz. It was further renovated
and reconstructed several times. Its interior was erected in Baroque
architectural style. The cathedral of Graz, the cathedral, episcopal
church and parish church of St. Egydius, is the cathedral church of
the Diocese of Graz-Seckau. Attached is the parish Graz-Dom in the
deanery Graz-Mitte of the city church Graz.
The cathedral
of Saint Egidius is considered one of the most important art and
cultural historical buildings of the Austrian city of Graz and the
whole state of Styria. The late Gothic style building was built in
the 15th century, under Frederick III. Court Church of the
Roman-German Emperor and in 1786, when Graz was bishopric, raised to
the rank of a cathedral. The sacred building, originally intended as
a church fortress outside the medieval city walls, stands on
elevated ground between Bürgergasse and Burggasse. The dome forms
together with the neighboring oneimperial mausoleum, the castle and
the Schauspielhaus the ensemble of the Graz city crown.
The Graz Cathedral is dedicated to St. Aegydius and is therefore also
known as the Cathedral Church of St. Aegydius. The first church
dedicated to St. Aegydius stood on the site of today's cathedral at
least since the 12th century. A documentary mention is dated 1174, a
first priest in Graz was named in 1181. However, nothing survives from
this first church.
As Emperor Frederick III. In 1438 the
construction of the Graz Castle began, the construction of the new
church also began. The two-storey connecting passage between the castle
and the cathedral, which is no longer preserved, dates from this period.
As with all others under Frederick III. The buildings constructed in
Graz contain the lettering AEIOU with engraved or painted dates: 1438 in
the former sacristy, 1450 in the choir vault, 1456 on the west portal
and 1464 in the vault painting. The year 1464 is therefore assumed to be
the completion of the building. A market award certificate from Emperor
Friedrich for May 1 of each year dates from 1441 and is associated with
the church consecration festival at that time. Therefore, May 1st is
celebrated again today as the anniversary of the cathedral consecration.
The first cathedral master builder during the choir building phase
up to 1450 was probably Graz-born Hans Niesenberger, who was named
Master of Grätz der Weissnaw in 1459 at the Hüttentag in Regensburg and
in 1483 at the Milan Cathedral as Master Johannes of Graz.
In
1564 the building was the court church and until 1573 the town parish
church (a function that was taken over in 1585 by the former Dominican
church and today's town parish church); In 1577 the Jesuits received the
church for use. A sacristy was added in 1615; A total of four new
chapels were built between 1617 and 1667: the Pest Chapel, the Mater
Dolorosa Chapel, the Franz Xavier Chapel and the Cross Chapel. In 1678 a
crypt was built under the church, but in 1783 the access to the crypt
inside the church was walled up. In 1786 the church was raised to the
status of a cathedral.
The embankment to Bürgergasse was replaced
in 1831 by a terrace wall and the large flight of steps, and the
connecting passage to the Jesuit College was removed. In 1853/1854 the
two-storey connecting passage from the cathedral to the castle was
demolished.
In 1962/1963 the city administration of Graz had the
interior of the church extensively redesigned according to the plans of
Karl Raimund Lorenz. These included the creation of the new
free-standing altar table and the removal of a wrought-iron grate
between the nave and the choir.
After an existing crypt under the
Marienkapelle and under the Kreuzkapelle in the cathedral had been
adapted as a new burial place for the bishops of Graz-Seckau, the
deceased bishops were transferred from the mausoleum of Emperor
Ferdinand II next to the cathedral to this new one in 2010 bishop's
tomb. From May 2019 until Advent 2019, the cathedral was closed due to
renovation work, during which time the nave was renovated. The
presbytery will be renovated in 2020, followed by a thorough overhaul of
the organ in 2021. In the years that follow, the individual chapels are
to be renovated. The heating, electrical installations and lighting also
have to be renewed, and a video installation is also planned. The
renovation is expected to cost around six million euros.
From the outside, Graz Cathedral looks massive and simple. Only the choir area, which is significantly narrower than the nave, has a moving wall structure with its buttresses and rich tracery decorations. The originally impressively painted facades are largely white today, apart from a few remains of frescoes. The best known is the picture of the plague of God on the south side of the nave, attributed to the painter Thomas von Villach, which refers to the year 1480, when three plagues swept over Graz: plague, war and locusts. The chapels attached to the side of the building and the two ridge turrets do not date from the construction period, but were added later; today's large ridge turret in the west comes from Gregor Pacher and was built in 1653 in place of an older one created by Vinzenz de Verda in 1580-1582, the smaller ridge ridge in the east dates from 1739. The stone gates on the long sides are from the third quarter 17th century; the tin-plated doors with remarkable fittings are also from the same period. There are also numerous walled-in tombstones from the 16th-20th centuries on the outer walls of the church. century to see. In the eastern outdoor area (between the cathedral or mausoleum and Burggasse) there is a medium-sized bronze sculpture of the church patron Ägydius created by the well-known Graz artist Erwin Huber in 1998. The richly decorated west portal is still clearly in the tradition of Gothic architecture. However, only baldachins and angel head consoles have survived from the original state, the statues in the robe, which represent Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist and Saint Leopold, date from the 19th century. Above the portal, which is dated 1456, are the emperor's AEIOU and coats of arms showing the double-headed imperial eagle, the Austrian shield and the coats of arms of Portugal and Styria. The Coat of Arms of Portugal was installed in honor of Frederick III's wife, Eleanor Helena of Portugal, daughter of the Portuguese Queen.
The interior of the church was changed several times, for example by
installing side chapels and a baroque organ gallery. Nevertheless, it
can be seen that the Graz Cathedral is a hall church, a type that was
frequently taken up, particularly in the late Gothic period, and which
can be found, for example, in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral or the
former Neuberg Collegiate Church, but also in some church buildings in
the immediate vicinity of the Graz Cathedral (Maria Trost in Fernitz and
parish church Semriach). The nave in Graz Cathedral is divided into
three naves by eight mighty pillars. The elongated chancel follows
behind a high triumphal arch. The floor plan of the Graz Cathedral is
similar to that of the previously erected mendicant churches of the
Dominicans and Franciscans in Graz. Like these two, Graz Cathedral
originally had a rood screen. The reliefs of the bells of the cathedral
were also created according to the templates of the Graz artist Erwin
Huber.
At the time of construction, large parts of the interior
were painted in color. Only parts of this late Gothic fresco decoration
have been preserved, such as the depictions of Christopher above the
side entrances or the uncovered tendril and flower decorations in the
side aisle vaults, which are dated 1464.
Barbara Chapel
The
earliest dating stone in the church is in the former sacristy, today the
Barbara Chapel, with the year 1438. Of the two keystones, one shows
Saint Veronica with the veil, the other an angel with the Austrian
shield; here ecclesiastical and secular power are placed on an equal
footing. Unlike in Romanesque art, the keystones in the nave are not
exclusively symbols of Christ, but also imperial coats of arms and the
coats of arms of various sponsors of the building.
Friedrich
Chapel
Above the Barbara Chapel is the Friedrich Chapel, which was
long assumed to have been part of the original building concept.
According to new investigations, the Friedrichskapelle was added to the
building later. Two years after the start of construction, Friedrich
III. to the king; a west work with a ruler's gallery, as was customary
for ruler's churches at the time, was not planned in the church
planning, and a subsequent installation was not possible because of the
steeply sloping terrain in the west. Therefore, for the first time in
medieval architecture, a ruler's gallery was built directly next to the
choir. Friedrich's motto AEIOU can be seen particularly often in this
room. The Friedrichskapelle and a prayer room built above it later
(today's Romualdkapelle) were rooms directly available to the ruler and
connected directly to Graz Castle via a bridge.
1577-1773
In
the years from 1577 to 1773, when the Graz Cathedral served as the
Jesuit order church, numerous structural changes were made. For example,
the ridge turret with the baroque onion dome and a connecting passage
from the cathedral to the Jesuit College opposite were built (dismantled
in 1831), and numerous chapels and a new sacristy were added to the
church building. The Gothic rood screen was demolished so that all
churchgoers - in accordance with the provisions of the Council of Trent
- had a clear view of the high altar. Most of the magnificent interior
fittings, in keeping with the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, also
date from that period. Today's baroque high altar, which is considered
one of the most important in all of Austria and replaced a Renaissance
high altar that was only a hundred years old, was built between 1730 and
1733. The high altar, made according to a design by the Graz master
builder Georg Kräxner, shows in the middle an altarpiece by the painter
Franz Ignaz Flurer, which depicts St. Aegidius, the patron saint of the
church, and above it a group of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, which
is considered the most important work by the sculptor Johann Jacob
Schoy.
The side altars, which were erected immediately after the rood screen
was demolished around 1618, were extensively renovated by Veit Königer
in 1766. The altarpieces by court painter Giovanni Pietro de Pomis have
been preserved. The north altar shows Mary with the Annunciation Angel,
the south St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. The
revival of veneration of the saints, which had suffered under the
Reformation, was particularly promoted by the Jesuits. Like the mother
church of the Jesuits, Il Gesù in Rome, which has numerous side altars
in chapel niches, the side walls of the Graz Cathedral were also broken
through for the installation of niche-like chapel rooms. The pulpit,
which was erected in 1710 based on a design by the Jesuit Georg
Lindemayr, features elaborate High Baroque decor. The rest of the
furnishings in Graz Cathedral, from the pews, confessionals and choir
stalls to the lamps, bells and candlesticks, also largely date from the
Jesuit era and are therefore designed in a Baroque style.
After
the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the Graz Cathedral was
without a suitable function for some time. Since 1786, when the
episcopal seat of the diocese of Graz-Seckau was moved from Seckau to
Graz and Graz Cathedral became a cathedral church, Graz Cathedral has
been the spiritual and liturgical center of the diocese. In contrast to
the Jesuits, who redesigned the building according to their ideas, the
cathedral chapter largely preserved the building in the form in which it
had taken it over. After inner-city cemeteries were banned under Joseph
II, the parish cemetery was closed in 1830 and the cemetery wall,
together with the transition to the Jesuit College, which had become
useless, was demolished. In the years 1853/1854 the transition to Graz
Castle was demolished and since then the Graz Cathedral has been free.
Inside, only minor changes were made, mainly those related to the
liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council.
Reliquaries
The two reliquary shrines set up on marble bases on either side of the
triumphal arch are among the most valuable pieces of furniture in Graz
Cathedral. Originally, both shrines were bridal chests, which Paola
Gonzaga brought as wedding goods from Mantua to Bruck Castle near Lienz
for the wedding with Count Leonhard von Gorizia. After the death of the
childless couple, the chests came into the possession of the Millstatt
Abbey, which Archduke Ferdinand gave to the Jesuits around 1598 as the
financial basis for the founding of their Graz University. When Pope
Paul V donated relics to Graz Cathedral in 1617, the Jesuits had the two
chests brought from Millstatt.
Three reliefs made of bone and
ivory in the style of the Italian early Renaissance can be seen on each
of the chests made of oak wood. Six triumphal chariots are shown,
corresponding to the poem I Trifoni by Francesco Petrarch. They were
probably designed by Andrea Mantegna, who worked at the court of Mantua.
Crucifixion in crowd
Only one piece of furniture has been
preserved from the time of Emperor Friedrich: the crucifixion picture
created by Conrad Laib around 1457, which probably used to be the altar
picture of the cross altar on the Gothic rood screen. Due to the large
number of people depicted, the picture is referred to as a crucifixion
in a crowd and probably goes back to the passion plays, which were very
popular in the Middle Ages and took place with great sympathy from the
population at the time. With the continuous gold coloring of the
background, the picture is still clearly in the tradition of Gothic
painting, but the realistic depictions of people and horses already
point to the Renaissance. After many changes of location and a long
period of restoration, this picture, one of the most important Gothic
panel paintings in Austria, is now on display in the Friedrichskapelle
in Graz Cathedral.
Today's cathedral organ was built in 1978 by the Klais organ
manufacturer and stands on a baroque west gallery built in 1687.
Architect Jörg Mayr created the prospectus, using Veit Königer's décor
for Anton Römer's baroque organ. The cathedral organ has four manuals
and pedal with originally 70 registers with mechanical action and
electric register action, in 1998 a trumpet mechanism with three
registers was additionally installed. Organ concerts are held regularly
on summer Sundays.
In 2022 the organ was dismantled by the Rieger
organ building company from Schwarzach in Vorarlberg and reorganized as
part of the fifth phase of the cathedral renovation.
In the post-war period, the large roof turret housed a chime consisting of two bells from the Pfundner foundry from 1949 and three historical bells. These bells were lifted out of the tower in 1987 - the three smaller ones were transferred to the Leech Church. Today the ridge turret has 7 bronze bells, all cast in 1987 by the Grassmayr foundry in Innsbruck. In 2005, five small bells were cast for the neighboring St. Catherine's Church, also by Grassmayr.