St. Blasius Church

The Bürgerspitalkirche St. Blasius stands in Salzburg’s old town between the western end of the Getreidegasse and the old Gstättentor, directly against the Mönchsberg. Built in 1185 as a chapel for the Admont monks, it became a hall church in 1330 with three naves and ribbed vaults of unrendered Nagelfluh stone. The steep roof and massive walls give the exterior a fortress-like appearance, while the interior once housed a hospital for the city’s sick and elderly. The church’s history is marked by continuous adaptation. In 1410–1428 a pierced tracery gallery was added, turning the upper floor into a prayer choir for residents and making it a double church with separate entrances. Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo removed several altars in 1785, and Hugo Schneider remodelled the building in the neo-Gothic style in 1864. Traces of 16th-century vault painting were uncovered beneath later layers, including a depiction of the risen Christ flanked by Faith, Hope and Charity on the south wall. Inside, the high altar of 1785 shows a carved group of the Crucifixion beneath a depiction of the Ark of the Covenant. A delicate late-Gothic sacrament house, attributed to the Master of Mauterndorf, stands nearby. The former prayer choir, now called the Gothic Hall, serves as a concert venue for the Salzburg Advent serenades, its star-ribbed vault contrasting with the church’s plain surfaces. Outside, the adjacent Bürgerspital courtyard displays arcades with cross-ribbed vaults added in 1560, while along the wall to the Gothic Hall old gravestones from the former St. Blasius cemetery recall the site’s long use.