Basilica on the Weizberg

At the beginning of January 2018, the parish of Weiz received the certificate of appointment from the Vatican, confirming that the parish church on Weizberg had been named a minor basilica.

Fifth basilica of the diocese

This makes the parish church on Weizberg the fifth church in the Graz-Seckau diocese to be awarded this honorary title after Mariazell (1907), Seckau (1930), Rein (1979) and Mariatrost (1999). As a prerequisite for this title, the church building must be significant and must also have the personnel and structural resources for an exemplary celebration of the renewed liturgy and for frequent preaching and confessional services. In total, there are just over 30 churches in Austria that can call themselves "basilicas".

The story:

The first church on the Weizberg is said to have been built as early as 1065. The Styrian architect Joseph Hueber was entrusted with the construction. In 1757, the foundation stone was laid for today's high baroque church, which was completed after just two years of construction with a length of 53.58 m and a width of 25.80 m or 29 m in the shell.

The dome reaches a height of 21 meters. The interior decoration could only begin in 1769. The fresco decoration was created by the court painter Josef Adam Ritter von Mölck, who chose the five great Marian feasts of the church year for the ceiling paintings. The high altar, whose centerpiece is the Sorrowful Mother of God (Pietà) - a miraculous image from the early 15th century - is a creation of the sculptor Veit Königer (1771). The pulpit, completed in 1775, and the side altars are the work of Jakob Peyer. The stone relief on the flight of steps probably shows the old, single-towered parish church as well as part of Alt-Weiz with the Tabor and Thannhausen Castle.

On the southern outside of the church is the tomb of the father of Styrian historiography, Aquilinus Julius Caesar, who spent the last years of his life on the Weizberg.

Church services:

Sunday: 8.00 a.m. and 10.30 a.m.
Monday - Thursday and Saturday: 7.00 p.m.
Friday: 8.00 a.m.