Pfarrkirche Förolach

The parish church of Förolach stands in the village of the same name within the municipality of Hermagor in Carinthia. A medium-sized Gothic building first recorded in 1331, it has a choir as wide and high as the nave and ending in a three-sided apse. Outside on the south wall, frescoes of Saint Christopher and a Crucifixion dated 1521 were uncovered in 1977. A tall tower on the north side, with slit windows and round-headed louvres, is capped by an octagonal spire. An iron-bound door on the tower’s east side leads to the sacristy, while the tower stair rises from the choir’s north side. Inside, the four-bay nave carries a ribbed vault divided by transverse arches between the second and third bays. The eastern bays’ vaults date from the 18th or 19th century, the western bays and porch were rebuilt in 1927. A wooden west gallery spans two bays and houses an 1847 organ by Josef Grafenauer. A pointed, chamfered chancel arch opens to a two-bay choir with net-ribbed vault on round shafts. The late-Gothic sacrament house still retains its original wrought-iron grille and pinnacle-crested ogee arch. Decorative paintings in the choir date from the 17th century, and pointed windows light the space. The high altar, created around 1680, features a large aedicule on a high plinth, a smaller aedicule with a broken pediment and rich scrollwork. Its main painting, by Josef Straka in 1912, shows the beheading of Saint James, with the Coronation of the Virgin above. The pulpit and side altars are neo-Gothic. An 18th-century sounding board is painted with angels adoring a monstrance. A Lenten veil from the early 19th century depicts the Deposition, and other furnishings include a carved group of the Instruction of the Virgin, a console figure of Saint Augustine from about 1520, and late-baroque Stations of the Cross.