Pfarrkirche Würmlach

The Pfarrkirche Würmlach stands in the village of Würmlach, part of Kötschach-Mauthen in Carinthia. It is a Roman Catholic parish church dedicated to Saints Lambert and George. Originally a chapel for Weildegg Castle, it became a parish church in 1770.

The church is a simple late-Gothic structure with a three-bay nave and a single-bay choir. In 1770 it was extended westward by one bay with an entrance tower. The two-storey west façade has early-Classical features, including a semicircular window and a portal framed by pilasters. The tower rises with rounded sound openings and ends in an elongated onion dome topped by a lantern. On the north side of the nave hangs a heraldic slab for Hans Weillandt of Weildegg, who died in 1582. A First World War memorial stands on the north façade.

Inside, the nave is covered by a net-ribbed vault on chamfered wall shafts with half-round responds. The western extension has a barrel vault with lunettes. The choir vault is a star-shaped ribbed design with winding ribs on attached round columns. A late-15th-century fresco of the Crucifixion was uncovered in 1957 on the choir’s east wall. The high altar holds a tabernacle flanked by two late-18th-century angels. Sculptures by Ferdinand Demetz from 1886 depict Saints Martin and Lambertus and a Pietà along the north wall. Josef Obbrugger carved the figures of Saints Peter, Paul and George in the choir and nave in 1865. A stone font cover shows a group of the Baptism of Christ, and there is a 19th-century guardian-angel group, a Baroque crucifix and an 18th-century ‘Christ in Sorrow’. The pew ends carry plain carved tracery.