Pfarrkirche hl. Magdalena, Wildon, Baroque church in Wildon, Austria.
Pfarrkirche hl. Magdalena is a baroque church in Wildon featuring a tall tower on its eastern side and richly ornamented stone details throughout. The building displays typical baroque characteristics in both its facade and interior layout.
The parish is first documented in 1252, when the Lords of Wildon, who had brought the patronage of Mary Magdalene from Riegersburg around 1174, held it. The Gothic church was rebuilt and reoriented to the west between 1671 and 1676 by the Graz master builder Franz Isidor Carlone. Its late Gothic east tower, dated 1487 on the north side, survived the rebuilding and burned out as far as its hall vault in 1727.
The parish's patron is Mary Magdalene, brought to Wildon around 1174 by the Lords of Wildon from Riegersburg. The high altar painting of her death was made by Hanns Adam Weißenkircher, court painter to the Eggenberg princes, lords of Oberwildon from 1624. The south transept chapel belonged to the former Rosenkranz brotherhood, the north one to the Sebastian and Rochus plague brotherhood.
The church sits on Oberer Markt in central Wildon and is easy to reach on foot. Visitors should note that services take place at specific times and the building may be closed outside these hours.
The "Rittergruft" beneath the tower is now lost, so only the crypt built during the 1670s rebuilding survives, holding parish clergy and market notables. Emperor Joseph II banned burials there after 1780, and the parish only moved the churchyard to Kainach in 1831. On the tower's east side stands the monument of Maximilian Leysser (1489–1555), imperial privy councillor and field master of the Lower Austrian lands.
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