St. Ulrich Church is located in the eastern part of the spa town
of Bad Kleinkirchheim. It was almost completely rebuilt in the
middle of the 18th century. The first documentary mention of this
building dates back to 1166. There are no traces of a medieval
building, however, some details have been preserved from the
subsequent building of the church, already made in the Gothic style.
In 1743, a fire broke out in the city, and the church had to be
rebuilt, this time in the Baroque style.
St. Ulrich's Church
consists of a spacious nave and lower choirs. The entire building is
covered with a pitched roof. The main facade is supported by
graceful columns. It is worth noting the lancet northern portal of
the building - this is the only surviving part of the building made
in the late Gothic style. The architectural ensemble is complemented
by a bell tower, built in 1837 and topped by an elegant onion-shaped
dome, typical of Austria and southern Germany.
The interior
design of the temple is in baroque style. The vaulted ceilings of
the choirs are supported by columns, and the walls are adorned with
exquisite paintings, however, quite modern - the work was carried
out in 1926-1928. But the dome of the cathedral was painted in 1782
and depicts St. Ulrich. The main altar, side altars and pulpit were
made in the first half of the 18th century.
Some of the
interior details of the church were completed later and belong to
the next style - Rococo. These include, for example, medallions
dedicated to the life of St. Ulrich. Also worth noting are the 17th
century gravestones that mark the burials of priests and rectors of
this parish. It is interesting that the church bell was cast in the
late Middle Ages - in the XIII century.
The church is a Romanesque-Gothic
building with baroque conversions in the existing wall. It consists
of a four-axle nave with a high pitched roof and a low, retracted
choir with a three-eighth end. The facades are structured by
delicate pilasters. The windows and the west portal are from the
Baroque, the pointed arch north portal from the Gothic. The tower on
the north side, built in 1837, is crowned by an onion helmet. The
oldest bell dates from the 13th century, another bell was cast by
Rupert Dringer in 1664.
In the broadly proportioned main hall
house, an undivided barrel arches over narrow cornices. The
retracted triumphal arch is structured by pilasters with
entablature. Painted pilasters decorate the square choir. An
iron-studded door with late Gothic pointed arches leads from the
north wall of the choir to the sacristy on the tower ground floor.
The painting in the flat dome of the choir from 1782 shows the
transfiguration of St. Ulrich. The wall paintings in the choir,
above the triumphal arch and in the nave were created by Jonas
Ranter in 1926–1928. In the nave, scenes from the legend of St.
Ulrich and the battle on the Lechfeld. The painting of St. Joseph
with baby Jesus from the beginning of the 19th century on the north
wall of the choir was uncovered in 1988. On the south wall of the
nave there is a baroque fresco from 1768 depicting Christ on the
Mount of Olives. The parapet of the west gallery was painted with
saints using the grisaille technique in the 18th century.
The high altar shows St. Ulrich on the central picture and a Madonna with Child Jesus and St. John the Child and carries the carved figures of St. John Nepomuk and Franz Xavier from the first quarter of the 18th century above the sacrificial passage portals. The two side altars, the pulpit and the organ case also date from this period. The pictures of the side altars show John the Baptist and Ignatius von Loyola on the left and Saints Erasmus and Leonhard on the right. A crucifixion group from the first quarter of the 18th century is attached to the south wall of the nave. Two priest tombstones from 1718 and 1604 are walled in on the north wall of the nave.