Filialkirche St. Luzia, Bleiburg

The small Romanesque church of St Lucia stands alone north of Aich/Dob in the Bleiburg district of Carinthia. It serves as a resting point on the Jauntaler Dreibergelauf pilgrimage route through the Jaun valley. The building’s core dates from the 12th century, visible in two windows on the south wall. The church was enlarged in the early 18th century, extending the nave westward and the sanctuary eastward. A north tower marked 1726 was added at the same time, housing two historic bells cast in 1670 and 1675. Restoration in 1997 revealed the tower’s original baroque polychrome stonework. Inside, a late 17th-century painted flat ceiling shows Marian and saintly figures framed by angels and cornucopias. The wooden west gallery, built around 1900, rests on slender balusters. The late-baroque high altar of the 1770s holds a carved figure of Saint Lucia between statues of Agatha and Barbara. Two side altars from about 1770, attributed to Johann Andreas Strauß, display scenes of the Lamentation and the Flight into Egypt. A side chapel contains an early 18th-century painting of the Massacre of the Innocents. The polygonal apse is framed by pilasters and capped with a ribbed barrel vault.