Pfarrkirche Sankt Stefan am Krappfeld

The parish church of St Stefan am Krappfeld stands in the village of the same name in the Mölbling municipality of Carinthia. First mentioned in 1131, it began as a fortified church and was attacked by the Turks in 1478 before being taken by the Hungarians in 1480. The old defensive wall around the graveyard was removed in 1858 and replaced by a lower one. The building is a Romanesque church with a tower over the choir, built around 1200. The nave was lengthened in the 16th century and a sacristy added to the south of the choir square. In the Baroque period a chapel was built on the south side and pilasters were added to the façades. A southern aisle was added in the 19th century and all the windows except the east choir window were altered in the neo-Gothic style. The tower was raised several times and now has Baroque sound windows in its fifth storey topped by a bulbous dome from 1766. The oldest bell dates from 1435. Inside, a late Gothic oil-berg fresco was uncovered on the west façade in 1993–94. The high altar, made about 1640, holds statues of Saints Florian, Stephen and Sebastian, with a group of the Annunciation above. A fasten cloth from 1612 shows eight Passion scenes around a central Crucifixion. The left side altar is a plain stone table before a Gothic Pietà, and the right side altar of 1707 contains a Madonna. The pulpit, made around 1700, is carved with the four Evangelists and the Archangel Michael. Romanesque and Gothic wall paintings, including a Pietà from about 1425 and a holy Kümmernis, line the nave.