Maria Gail

Maria Gail is an important center of pilgrimage in Carinthia since centuries. It is locally claimed, that Langobardian missionaries may have founded Maria Gail within the 6th century.

The church was mentioned the first time in 1136. The once massive Romanesque church got enlarged (in Gothic style) between 1400 and 1450. In 1478 the church got severely damaged by Turkish troops during the Ottoman incursions. It got rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1486.

During a renovation in 1950 late Romanesque frescoes (13th.) were discovered under the plaster along the walls of the nave.

Fixed onto the southern outer wall are some Romanesque scupltures, that probably originate from the preciding church, that was ruined by the Turkish troops.

Here is Saint George and the dragon (left) and praying person (?) and a lion holding the head of a ram (right).