This summer, the Leonhard Church will once again be open to visitors every Wednesday from July 10, 2024 to August 21, 2024 from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm. A short guided tour of the church is available on request. Admission: free
The church, built on a steep slope to the south of Murau, is reminiscent of the legend of St. Leonhard of Noblac in many details. Whether it is the cornice running around the entire church, the grimacing heads on the outer choir, which are banished from the church by the ribbon, or the church's location above the crossroads of north-south and west-east trade routes.
Chronological classification:
The start of construction as well as the reason for the foundation and the construction process have been handed down in several variants. There is evidence of pilgrimages to the “Leonhardikirche” from 1439, and the church is mentioned in a letter of indulgence in 1450.
Construction:
St. Leonhard's Church is a late Gothic building with a long choir and an attached ridge turret. There are quarrystone walls, ribbed vaults, buttresses and the organ loft made of yellow sandstone. The floor plan is a two-and-a-half bay rectangular room with a slightly recessed chancel and 3/8 end. Below the windows on the outer wall, a multi-stepped cornice runs around the building. The south portal features crab-ornamented keel arches with coats of arms. There was originally a four-part window with tracery on the west wall, but this was probably bricked up in the 19th century after storm damage.
Figures:
Three figures from the former Gothic altars still exist on the high altar: St. George as a dragon slayer on the left, St. Florian with a water weapon next to him and St. Eustace with armor and lance on the right. The depiction in medieval armor is just as remarkable as the smiling expression on St. George's face. Two figures from St. Leonhard's Church can be found in the Alte Galerie at the Landesmuseum Joanneum. All of the figures are from the younger Villach workshop, created around 1520. They are made of lime or stone pine wood and are painted in different colors.