Pfarrkirche Soboth

The parish church of Soboth stands in the village of Soboth within the market town of Eibiswald in the Deutschlandsberg district of Styria. It is dedicated to Saint James the Elder and has been protected as a listed building for many decades. The church once belonged to a deanery that was dissolved in 2018, placing it under a new pastoral area. The present church dates from the late 17th century after an earlier building burned down in a lightning strike. It became a parish church in 1789, and its sacristy was added at the end of the 19th century. Major restorations took place in 1962 and again in 1981, both inside and out. The church’s three-bay nave is topped with a net-ribbed vault, and a lower, single-bay choir ends in a semicircle. Inside, the high altar from 1692 and the northern side altar to Saint Anne were made by Bartholome Bluemberger’s workshop in Eibiswald. The tabernacle and the southern side altar of the Holy Helpers both date from the third quarter of the 18th century. The pulpit and the baptismal font, marked 1790, add to the interior’s crafted detail. The organ, built around 1790 and possibly by Ludwig Greß, was moved here in 1927.