Bäckerkapelle Wolfsberg

The Bäckerkapelle stands in Wolfsberg, a town in Carinthia, northeast of the main parish church. It is a small Gothic building from the first half of the 15th century, dedicated to Saint Anne. The bakers’ guild owned the chapel from at least 1497, when it first appears in records. The chapel’s plain exterior hides rich details added in the 18th century. A sweeping Baroque gable and a small bell turret were placed above the original Gothic west door, which has pointed tracery and an iron-bound wooden leaf. Inside, a two-bay net-ribbed vault rises on round shafts, while the north wall shows pointed niches and the south wall two traceried windows. The crypt below is sealed by a stone carved with baker’s symbols—pretzels, strudel and crescent rolls. Visitors enter through the west portal and step into a single room of modest size. The late-Gothic winged altar, rebuilt around 1600, contains a carved Madonna and Child from an Ulm workshop of the 15th century. The painted wings depict female saints, the inner reliefs male protectors, and the outer panels scenes from Christ’s life. Above, a 17th-century canopy crowns the group of the Virgin learning from her mother.