Doppelkirche Straden

The double church in Straden stands two storeys high inside the old Tabor defensive wall in the south-eastern state of Styria. Built as a single rectangular block, its upper church is dedicated to Saint Sebastian and its lower church to the Sorrowful Mother of God. The entire structure has been protected as an official historic monument since the early 20th century. The church was completed in 1535 for the local Sebastian brotherhood founded in 1517. In 1631 the parish priest Simon Wohlgemuth paid for repairs recorded by an inscription above the entrance. A century later the organ was installed in 1780 by Ludwig Greß, while the high altar painting of Saint Sebastian surrounded by the fourteen helpers was added between 1730 and 1735 by Franz Ignaz Flurer. Storm damage in 1928 required the repair of the small western turret. Visitors enter the lower church through an external staircase and porch. Inside, a life-size Pietà and the altar both date from 1775 and are the work of Johann Lehner of Radkersburg. Beneath the gallery lies a Holy Sepulchre containing Lehner’s 1779 sculpture of the dead Christ. Above, the ceiling frescoes painted in 1913–14 by the Kerle brothers of Tyrol show scenes from the Passion. The lower church served as a charnel house until about 1677, while today the upper church is used as a mortuary chapel.