Ulrichschurch at the Hollerberg

Krakau

The church of St. Ulrich at the entrance to the Etrachtal, which dates from the end of the 15th century and is one of the few Gothic country churches. No structural changes were made over the centuries. The late Gothic church of St. Ulrich am Hollerberg, at the entrance to the Etrachtal, dates from around 1500 and has been preserved almost unchanged. You will find here a painted wooden beam ceiling of the early 16th century.

The special feature of the church, however, is the Gothic winged altar, whose predella was painted after a model by Albrecht Dürer.

St. Ulrich am Hollerberg was built in the late Gothic architectural style as a simple rectangular building in quarry stone masonry with an indented choir and a wooden ridge turret. A small rectangular sacristy is attached to the south side of the choir. Three lancet windows facing south illuminate the interior of the choir. From the chancel, an ogival front arch leads into the nave, which has two more ogival windows on the south side and an entrance doorway on each of the north and west sides. In the western part of the building there is a wooden organ loft with stairs.

A special feature of the church are the painted wooden ceilings of the chancel and nave, which consist of simple longitudinal boards with interposed moldings. The moldings were richly decorated by stencil painting and script bands. In addition to simple geometric latticework, fish-bubble tracery, delicate rosettes and tendrils with flowers dominate the appearance. The characteristics of the small-scale painting point to the foothills of the Gothic period around 1500. The high altar is a late Gothic winged altar with a central shrine, predella, and sprinkling on top. It depicts the Lamentation of Christ. The altar, completed in 1521, was replaced in 1741 by a new creation of the Judenburg sculptor Balthasar Brandstätter. The church walls are decorated all around with figures of saints and images of the Passion.