Graz Cathedral

About

Standing in the heart of the old town of Graz, the cathedral was first raised between 1438 and 1462 as the Hofkirche, the court church of Emperor Frederick III, who was establishing his residence on the adjacent castle hill. It is a Gothic hall church (Hallenkirche) of brick and limestone, oriented east to west, with a broad nave flanked by two narrower side aisles under a continuous roof.

The interior is supported by eight octagonal piers that divide the space into three aisles, opening onto small chapels added under successive Habsburg patrons. Within the cathedral are medieval frescoes and altarpieces, a high Baroque high altar of 1730-33 by Georg Kraxner bearing an image of Saint Giles, and two ivory reliquaries originally created as the bridal chests of Paola Gonzaga.

On the south outer wall the 1485 Landplagenbild by Thomas von Villach still bears witness to a turbulent age, depicting the trials that befell the city, a Turkish incursion, locusts, and pestilence, read by contemporaries as divine chastisement. The west portal of 1456 remains the most richly decorated external element, an exemplar of late Gothic ornament.

From 1577 to 1773 the church served the Jesuit college and the University of Graz, and it received Baroque additions during that period. In 1786, under the reforms of Emperor Joseph II, the church was raised to cathedral status as the seat of the new Diocese of Graz-Seckau, a role it has held ever since.

History

A chapel dedicated to Saint Giles stood on this site as early as 1174, but the present church began in 1438, when Emperor Frederick III ordered it rebuilt as his Hofkirche beside the new residence rising on Graz's castle hill. Archduke Charles II handed the church to the Jesuits in 1577, and it served as the university church after the founding of the University of Graz in 1585. In 1786, under Emperor Joseph II's reforms, the church became the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Graz-Seckau, with Joseph Adam Graf von Arco installed as its first bishop, and a six-year restoration completed in 2023 renewed the nave, the altar, and the organ.

Significance

The Baroque high altar, carved by Georg Kraxner between 1730 and 1733, holds Franz Ignaz Flurer's altarpiece of Saint Giles flanked by the Four Evangelists, while the 1485 Landplagenbild fresco on the south wall still records the plague, a Turkish incursion, and pestilence that once tested the city. As the bishop's church of Styria, the cathedral hosts the diocese's principal ordinations and liturgies, and its patronal feast on the first of September continues to draw the parish that has gathered here since the Middle Ages.

Architecture

Gothic hall church (Hallenkirche) of brick and limestone, plastered exterior, with later Baroque altars, chapels, and furnishings