Catacombs

The Gertraudenkapelle stands in the catacombs above St Peter’s Cemetery in Salzburg. It is one of four chapels cut into the rock face of the Mönchsberg. The site has been sacred for centuries, long before the present structure was restored in the 12th century. The chapel is worth visiting for its early link to Thomas Becket. In 1178 Archbishop Konrad III dedicated it to the murdered English saint, whose martyrdom is shown in the oldest surviving fresco of its kind in Salzburg. Later the name changed to Gertraudenkapelle after a re-dedication to St Gertrude of Nivelles. The building also contains fragments of Romanesque busts, marble imitations and Gothic stencilled patterns, all carefully conserved in recent decades. Inside, six round-arched niches line the rock walls, added in 1865 to designs by the first Salzburg monument conservator Georg Pezolt. A small altar of clay tiles, made three years earlier, imitates early Christian Roman models. A central pillar from the 17th century appears to grow from the cave itself, while outside a tiny bell turret and sloping roof shelter the entrance. The uneven ceiling still reveals the original cave surface, keeping the ancient setting alive.