Pfarrkirche hl. Johannes der Täufer, Forst

The parish church of Forst stands in the village of Forst within the town of Wolfsberg in Carinthia. It is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and belongs to the deanery of Wolfsberg in the diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt. The church and its adjoining cemetery are protected as listed monuments. The building began as a small hunting chapel first recorded in 1421. In 1731 a benefice was founded here, and the present Baroque structure was erected in the 18th century. In 1848 the church was remodelled and given a vaulted ceiling, and in 1854 it became a parish church in its own right. Inside, a tall west tower with round-headed and bifora windows supports a bulbous dome. The west door is reinforced with iron fittings. Inside the tower base is a flat barrel vault with lunettes, while the four-bay nave has panelled vaulting between ribs on pilasters. The west gallery rests on a depressed vault. The narrower choir is marked by more prominent pilasters, and the north sacristy is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes and ribbed intersections. The late-Baroque high altar, brought here from the winter church at Maria Wörth, is flanked by neo-Gothic side altars and a neo-Gothic pulpit, both decorated with carved figures and reliefs dating from about 1900.