Sacellum

The Sacellum in Salzburg stands at the corner of Hofstallgasse and Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz, a small Roman Catholic church built in 1618 as part of the city’s first university. Dedicated to St Charles Borromeo, its name comes from the Latin word for a holy place. The foundation stone was laid by Dompropst Paris von Lodron, and during construction workers uncovered Roman walls and coins from the ancient city of Juvavum. The church served the university until the larger Kollegienkirche was completed in the early 18th century. After that it passed to various brotherhoods who added decorations and maintained the building. The church’s exterior shows a mix of simple rectangular windows and a richly carved marble portal on the Hofstallgasse side. Above the door sits a carved oval of the Madonna and Child framed by volutes and a segmental pediment. Inside, a rectangular nave with a five-bay ribbed vault contains side chapels and a sacristy. The ceiling medallions depict the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, copied from engravings by Rubens and Veronese. Wall paintings of the Passion were painted by Stephan Kessler of Brixen. The high altar, made of Adneter and Untersberger marble, was commissioned by P. Placidus Scharl and completed in 1768. Visitors enter through the marble doorway into a space dominated by the baroque high altar showing the Virgin on a globe, flanked by statues of St Charles Borromeo and St Benedict. Below are gilt lead reliefs of their lives. A red-and-white marble screen separates the choir, and a small oratory gives a view into the university library. Beneath the floor lies the unique Sitzgruft, where twelve professors sit entombed on narrow benches facing the altar, their robes preserved and supported by wooden beams.