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. Here is one of them, depicting the flagellation. The torturers wear cone-shaped "Jewish" hats making very clear, that the persons seen here, are jews.

To wear such hats was enforced in many places in medieval times, in order to distinguish Jews from Christians.