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Court church
Emperor Frederick III ordered a new Gothic church in 1438
A church dedicated to Saint Giles is first documented in a 1174 donation to Seckau Abbey. In 1438 Emperor Frederick III ordered the complete rebuilding of the church. The new Gothic church was largely finished by about 1464.
The Jesuits
The Jesuits took over the church in 1577 and it became the university church
In 1577 Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria handed the church to the Jesuits. After the University of Graz was founded in 1585 it served as the university church. It was modified in the Baroque style during these years.
The fresco
A fresco of 1485 on the south wall shows the plagues that struck Graz
The 1485 Landplagenbild by Thomas von Villach remains on the south exterior wall. It depicts the plagues that affected Graz, namely a Turkish attack, locusts and pestilence, as divine punishment.
Bridal chests
Two bridal chests of Paola Gonzaga were reused as reliquaries
Two Renaissance reliquaries stand at the entrance to the chancel arch. They are the ornate ivory-inlaid Brauttruhen, the bridal chests of Paola Gonzaga, which the Jesuits repurposed as reliquaries for martyrs.
Restoration
A restoration from 2017 to 2023 rebuilt the organ and added a new altar
The six-year project cleaned and repaired the nave, choir and side chapels, and a new basalt altar was installed. The organ built in 1978 was completely rebuilt by Rieger and consecrated in November 2023.
5,300+pipes before the rebuild, reduced to about 4,200
Day 1, afternoon
It comes after Schlossberg and the Clock Tower. Then Kunsthaus Graz.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Graz Cathedral, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.