Holy Trinity Church (Trofaiach)

The Dreifaltigkeitskirche stands in Trofaiach, a town in the Austrian province of Styria. It is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The building combines late Gothic and Baroque elements, with a late Gothic nave and a Baroque tower. The church was originally called the Salvator Church and was first mentioned in 1195. It came under the control of Traunkirchen Abbey until 1448. The church is notable for its rich early Rococo interior. The high altar with its columned structure and side altars were moved here from the former Dominican monastery in Leoben in 1811. The sculptor Matthäus Krenauer is credited with creating these works. The church also houses a Baroque copy of a Gothic statue, the original of which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The organ dates from 1595 and was rebuilt in 1829. Visitors find a four-bay nave with a net-ribbed vault and a two-bay choir with a five-sided apse. The west gallery, unusual for having two storeys, dates from 1753. The tower, rising four storeys, has a richly decorated helmet with two domes and lanterns. The church also features a Loreto Chapel built in 1713 and a Baroque sacristy. The exterior walls show stepped buttresses and pointed arch windows, with the south portal bearing the date 1497.