Pfarrkirche Maria im Moos

The late-Gothic parish church of Pusterwald stands in the village of the same name in the Murtal valley of Styria. A walled cemetery surrounds the building, which was begun around 1430 and later raised in 1695. The church became an independent parish in 1787 after earlier fires in 1880 and 1957. The two-bay choir ends in a three-sided apse with pointed windows and a star-ribbed vault. A narrow round-arched arch leads into the wider three-bay nave, covered by a barrel vault with lunettes. The west tower rises five storeys, its upper levels showing paired round-headed windows and a pointed spire. Inside, the high altar of 1772 holds a late-Gothic Madonna carved in the 1480s and reworked by Georg Pame in 1784. The nave contains side altars from the 1770s with statues in the style of Balthasar Prandtstätter. The pulpit is Baroque, and the Stations of the Cross date from 1800 in the manner of Johann Lederwasch. Two bells survive from the 15th century, one by Hans Mitter and another by Mert of Friesach from 1475. Outside, the cemetery holds a crucifix by Jakob Gschiel from 1881.