The largest church in Graz and one of the tallest in Austria, the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, or Church of the Sacred Heart, rises above the Styrian capital with a slender spire reaching almost a hundred metres. Built between 1881 and 1887 in a confident neo-Gothic style, it was raised during a wave of church-building in the late nineteenth century, when growing cities expressed their faith and prosperity in soaring revivalist architecture. The brick church follows the model of the great medieval Gothic cathedrals, with a tall nave, pointed arches, ribbed vaults and a forest of pinnacles, its lofty interior drawing the eye upward toward the light. Its stained-glass windows are a particular treasure, including one that depicts the emperor Franz Joseph among the saints. As a major work of historicist architecture, the church reflects the nineteenth-century admiration for the Gothic past, reinterpreting medieval forms on a grand scale with the materials and techniques of the industrial age. Its towering spire is a landmark on the Graz skyline, visible from across the city and from the Schlossberg hill at its heart, anchoring the eastern part of the historic centre. Graz itself is a Unesco World Heritage city, celebrated for its remarkably preserved old town, and the Herz-Jesu-Kirche adds a striking nineteenth-century note to a cityscape otherwise rich in medieval, Renaissance and baroque buildings. A working parish church, it remains in regular use for worship and music while welcoming visitors who come to admire its scale and its windows. The church is generally open to visitors outside service times, free of charge, and its commanding spire makes it easy to find on a walk through the eastern districts of the Styrian capital. The church rose at a time when Graz, like many growing cities, expressed its civic and religious confidence through monumental building, and its designers looked back to the medieval Gothic as the noblest expression of Christian architecture. Its great height and slender spire deliberately echoed the cathedrals of an earlier age, and the result, dominating its quarter of the city, stands as one of the finest examples of the neo-Gothic revival in Austria and a proud landmark of the Styrian capital.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Sparbersbachgasse 60, Graz, Austria

Opening Date: 01/01/1887