Laurentiuskirche

The Laurentiuskirche stands high above Bludenz, a Roman Catholic church beside the baroque Schloss Gayenhofen. A covered staircase with two sharp bends leads up from the Upper Town Gate, built in 1694 and renewed in 1840. Another flight of steps, added in 1830, carries visitors from the west side of the old town. Frescoes by Florus Scheel crown both staircases, and the upper exit shows a 1684 gravestone for Johann Baptist Salomon and his wife. The church began as a Carolingian private chapel in about 806 and became the mother church of the region. Its present gothic nave dates from 1514, lengthened in the 1740s by Andreas Schmidt. A massive 48-metre tower, designed by Maximilian von Lerchenfeld, was built between 1667 and 1670. Inside, black-marble high altars and works by Melchior Paul von Deschwanden and Erasmus Kern share space with a 1746 organ by Johannes Allgäuer. Visitors climb past the tower’s evangelist busts and a 1670 sundial to reach the church. The gothic nave shelters a rib-vaulted choir with a 1857 fresco of Christ as Judge. Three historic bells still ring: the Susanna bell of 1506, the Laurentius bell of 1545, and a 1923 steel bell. A 1928 war memorial by Alfons Fritz stands in the stairwell, completing the climb to this hilltop landmark.