Pfarrkirche St. Georgen am Weinberg, Völkermarkt

The Catholic parish church of St George stands on a hill in the village of St Georgen am Weinberg, part of Völkermarkt in southern Austria. Built in the 16th century on Romanesque and late-Gothic foundations, it belongs to the Gurk-Klagenfurt diocese and is protected as a listed monument. The church and its hilltop cemetery share the same heritage protection. The church is one of three Hemma churches in the Trixen valley, linked to St Ruprecht in Völkermarkt since 1332. A 17th-century visitation criticised the ossuary beneath the choir, leading to the creation of a separate charnel house. The stone-slab roof, north tower with its onion dome, and southern Baroque chapel show layers of Gothic and Baroque craftsmanship. Inside, a three-bay nave rises to a star-vaulted ceiling, while the choir’s net ribs rest on corbels. The crypt under the choir and the Christallnigg family vault beneath the chapel add layers of history. Visitors enter through a richly profiled west portal under an open porch with an altar slab. The nave’s west gallery carries a 1536 coat of arms, and the choir holds a late-Gothic high altar with figures of St George and the Evangelists. The Baroque high altar of the 1730s shows St George on horseback flanked by the Four Evangelists. Outside, a Roman votive altar to Aesculapius and fragments of Roman reliefs recall earlier centuries. The churchyard walls carry Gothic and Renaissance tombstones, including 15th- and 17th-century armorial slabs and small figure stones of children.