!!!Gurk, Markt

Gurk, Carinthia, market town in the district of Sankt Veit an der 
Glan, alt. 664 m, pop. 1,368, 39,66 km%%sup 2/%, pilgrimage 
site and tourist resort (300,000-400,000 day visits per year) on the 
upper section of the River Gurk, at the foot of the eastern Gurktal 
Alps. - External office of the youth welfare department, St. Hemma 
guesthouse of the Salvatorian Order (male and female branches); 
"Zwergenpark" (since 1993) with 1,000 garden gnomes; Gurker 
Kleiderfabrik clothing factory (traditional costumes and sports 
clothes). - Convent established by Saint  Hemma, Countess of 
Friesach-Zeltschach, before 1043; foundation of the diocese of Gurk in 
1072 by Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg, which under Joseph II was 
extended to include almost all of Carinthia; in 1787 the diocese was 
transferred to Klagenfurt. The former cathedral and today´s 
parish church, the most important Romanesque church building in 
Austria, is a three-aisled pier basilica, started around 1140, 
finished around 1200 (west porch recessed in 7 steps, before 1200). 
The oldest part is the crypt with one hundred columns, consecrated in 
1174, when the grave of St. Hemma was transferred to the crypt), with 
altar dedicated to St. Hemma, vaults constructed 1450-1591. Twin 
towers with a height of 60 m, above the apse "lion and basilisk" 
relief, (around 1175), wall frescoes (around 1340) and stained glass 
in outer antechurch. The wall frescoes in the western gallery (around 
1220, restored and enlarged after 1260) are the major works of the 
alpine  "Zackenstil" (toothed ornaments as a typical feature); stained 
glass window of the deposition of Christ (after 1260) is the earliest 
example of "Zackenstil" in Austrian  stained glass art. Late 
Gothic Galler Altar (around 1530) with Renaissance-style ornaments, 
cruciform altar (1740) by G. R. Donner, pulpit (1740-1741) 
according to a design by the brothers Giuseppe und Antonio 
Galli-Bibiena. Monastery complex: fortified wall with round towers, 
partly preserved, Gethsemane Chapel (former charnel house, first 
documented 1275, turned into a chapel in 1720/1721), with Baroque wall 
and ceiling paintings (Romanesque frescoes destroyed in the 
15%%sup th/% ), Baroque monastery complex after 1637 by F. P. 
Carlone, Lenten veil by Konrad von Friesach (1458). In the centre of  
Pisweg, Romanesque church and Gothic-charnel house.

!Literature
Festgabe zum 900-Jahr-Jubilaeum des Bistums Gurk, 
1072-1972, 2 vols., 1972.


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