Stift Pöllau

Stift Pöllau stands in the village of Pöllau, near Hartberg in the rolling hills of eastern Styria. Once a medieval water fortress, it became an Augustinian monastery in 1504 when Christoph von St. Georgen-Pösing carried out the wishes of Hans von Neuberg. Over the next two centuries the buildings were enlarged, culminating in the Baroque church completed in 1712. After Joseph II closed the monastery in 1785, the site passed to the state and now houses a museum of physics history alongside its festival hall. The church itself is a masterpiece of Styrian High Baroque, designed by Joachim Carlone and Remigius Horner with frescoes by Mathias von Görz. Its cross-shaped plan, 62.5 metres long, centres on a domed crossing that rises 42 metres above the floor. The walls and vaults are covered with vast illusionistic frescoes that tell the story of salvation, from the Last Judgement in the nave to the heavenly choirs in the dome. A late-medieval stone Pietà, carved around 1420, still watches over the nave. Visitors walk beneath painted arcades that seem to lift the ceiling higher, then step into the transepts where two powerful side altars dominate: the rosary altar on the north and the Augustine altar on the south. The high altar, added later in Empire style, carries a sombre painting of Saint Vitus in the boiling oil. In the north chapel, Martino Altomonte’s 1725 Crucifixion hangs above the oldest piece in the church, the Gothic Pietà that once stood in the castle chapel. Outside, the Baroque column on the main square and the sweeping view over the Pöllau valley frame the skyline.