Description of the attraction
The Church of the Holy Trinity is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture. It is located in the historic center of Graz, in the Innere Stadt district, in the immediate vicinity of the Mur River embankment and the Schlossberg Palace.
During the Middle Ages, an ancient city cemetery was located on this site, and in 1694 the first stone of a small memorial chapel was laid, which later grew into this monumental temple. The construction of the church was completed in 1704, and already in 1722 it became part of the large monastery of the Ursuline sisters. At the end of the 18th century, when the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II ordered the closure of more than a hundred monasteries, this monastery in Graz survived, as a large school operated under it. Only in 1900 the monastery was dissolved, and some of its premises were completely destroyed. Now the Church of the Holy Trinity - previously dedicated to Saint Ursula, in honor of the monastery itself - belongs to the female branch of the Franciscan monastic order.
The church itself is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture typical of the Habsburg dynasty. Only some of its features already belong to a later style - classicism during the reign of Joseph II. The prototype for the construction was the building of the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Rome, which belongs to the Jesuit order.
The exterior of the church is particularly distinguished by its monumental main facade, exquisitely decorated with columns and statues of saints located in niches on the upper tiers. And in the very center of the triangular pediment, which is a typical characteristic of Jesuit temples, there is a sculpture depicting the holy Archangel Michael weighing the souls of the dead. Above him is an image symbolizing the Holy Trinity - God in three persons.
The spacious interior of the temple features low and vaulted ceilings supported by graceful columns. In general, the interior of the church is designed in a baroque style. Especially worth noting is the unusual angular pulpit, a variety of side chapels and statues of saints installed between the columns.
