Pfarrkirche hl. Blasius, Fresach

The parish church of Fresach stands high above the village on the site of a former walled cemetery in the Carinthian hills. Its sturdy Romanesque nave, probably built in the late 12th century, dominates the skyline. A wooden porch shelters the west door, while a massive three-storey north tower, dated 1515 to 1523, carries a shingled pyramid roof added in 1885. Inside, the church preserves vivid traces of its medieval past. Faded Gothic murals on the north wall depict the Agony in the Garden, while the choir vault shows the Imago Christi relief and early 16th-century head corbels. Andreas Paßler’s 1885 ceiling paintings illustrate the life of the Virgin in roundels around the Delivery of the Keys to Peter. The neogothic furnishings, carved by Ferdinand Demetz from Gröden, include a Blasius altar flanked by statues of the patron and Saint Sebastian. The churchyard walls still enclose the old burial ground, and the tower basement once served as a charnel house. Outside, the south shouldered portal and the two-light east window recall the 14th-century Gothic additions. Though many frescoes are worn, their presence tells of centuries of devotion to Saint Blasius in this quiet Carinthian village.