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 church dedicated to Saint Giles is first recorded on the site in a donation of 1174 to Seckau Abbey, though no fabric survives from that early chapel. Emperor Frederick III ordered the building rebuilt in Gothic style from 1438, with the work substantially complete by 1464 under the architect believed to have been Hans Niesenberge of Swabia.

In 1577 Archduke Charles II handed the church to the Jesuits, and from 1585 it served as the university church following the founding of the University of Graz. The diocese of Graz-Seckau was erected in 1786 during Joseph II's reforms, and the church was elevated to cathedral status with Joseph Adam Graf von Arco as its first bishop. A comprehensive restoration of the exterior and interior, with a new altar and a rebuilt organ, was completed in 2023.