!!!St. Paul im Lavanttal

St. Paul im Lavanttal, Carinthia, market town in the district of 
Wolfsberg, alt. 412 m, pop. 3,682, area 47.30 km%%sup 2/%, 
situated at the confluence of the Granitz stream and the Lavant river. 
- Forestry authority and secondary school sponsored by the local 
abbey; building firms, tool manufacturing, paper processing, tourism 
(primarily day-tourists). - On the Burgstallkogel mountain near St. 
Margarethen, a shrine to the Celtic god Mars Latobius was found. Monks 
from the German monastery Hirsau moved to the Benedictine abbey 
founded in 1091 (formerly a castle belonging to the Sponheim family); 
double-towered Romanesque/early Gothic pillared basilica (11%%sup th/% 
-13%%sup th/%  century, rebuilt after a fire in 1367), Romanesque 
tympanum with relief on the south portal (rebuilt 1617/1618, some 
parts still Romanesque), half-columns with Romanesque capitals (around 
1190-1220), under the high altar is a crypt housing the coffins of 13 
members of the house of Habsburg, extensive wall and vault paintings 
(by the brothers M. and F. Pacher, et al., donor fresco by Thomas v. 
Villach, 1493), three Gothic panel paintings (around 1460), Baroque 
high altar (1705), numerous gravestones decorated with coats of arms 
(14%%sup th/% -17%%sup th/%  century). Winter and summer refectories 
with stuccoed ceilings and frescoes; the monastery's art collection, 
housed in three halls with beautiful coffered ceilings (around 1620), 
contains paintings of German, Dutch and Italian masters from the 
15%%sup th/% -19%%sup th/%  centuries, 16 works by M. J. Schmidt, 
over 200 illuminated manuscripts (5%%sup th/% -15%%sup th/%  
centuries), arts and crafts (e.g. ivory relief, around 900), 
Romanesque bell chasuble (12%%sup th/%  century), sacred objects from 
the Middle Ages and the modern era, copper etchings, as well as some 
11,000 prints and drawings; the monastery's library contains some 
55,000 volumes, over 500 incunabula (up to 1520) and many early 
printing books, and well as 2,200 manuscripts. The monastery played an 
important role in the history of the church in Carinthia during the 
Middle Ages and was dissolved from 1787-1809 and 1940-45. In 1809 
monks from St. Blasien in Germany's Black Forest region took the 
monastery over, bringing art treasures and coffins of early members of 
the house of Habsburg with them. In the 20%%sup th/%  century the 
artist S.  Lobisser lived in Sankt Paul im Lavanttal, where he also 
had his studio.

!Literature
W. Fresacher, Geschichte des Marktes Sankt Paul im 
Lavanttal, 1961; K. Ginhart (editor), Die Kunstdenkmaeler des 
Benediktinerstiftes Sankt Paul im Lavanttal und seiner Filialkirchen, 
1969; B. Kurz, Die Entwicklung der Marktgem. Sankt Paul seit der 
Gem.-Zusammenlegung im Jahre 1971, master´s thesis, Vienna 1989; 
Schatzhaus Kaernten, 900 Jahre Benediktinerstift Sankt Paul im 
Lavanttal, exhibition catalogue, 2 vols., 1991; E. M. 
Findenig, Das Benediktinerstift Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in seiner 
soziokult. Entwicklung seit der Neubegruendung 1809 bis zur Gegenwart, 
master´s thesis., Graz 1993.


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