Description of the attraction
The Church of the Holy Cross is located in the Tyrolean ski resort of Seefeld. The distance from the main station of this city to the church does not exceed one kilometer. This temple, like another city church dedicated to St. Oswald, is especially popular among pilgrims, since its construction itself became possible only thanks to divine intervention.
The church was built in 1629 by order of the Archduke of Austria Leopold V in memory of the miraculous appearance of the crucified Christ. According to legend, this image first appeared to a very pious local woman, and then the crowned Regent of Tyrol clearly saw Jesus on the cross in the middle of the mountains and immediately ordered to build a temple on this place.
The construction of the church was completed in 1666. It is made in the Baroque style and is a graceful octagonal structure with an adjacent low bell tower topped with an onion-shaped dome, which is very common in Austria and southern Germany. But of particular interest is the main round dome of the building, which is quite rare in Tyrolean architecture.
The interior decoration of the church was completed more than a hundred years after the beginning of its construction. The famous Austrian master Josef Anton Puellacher worked on the painting of the walls and the dome of the church, as well as on the production of altar images. Especially worth noting are the frescoes of the temple, which retell the plot of the legend about the founding of this church.
Another striking and unusual detail of the interior of the Church of the Holy Cross in Seefeld is the forged lattice frame of the main altar, made in the style of Mannerism - a transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque. Now it is exhibited separately, on the upper tier of the temple.
The Church of the Holy Cross is recognized as an architectural monument and is protected by the state.
