Page 180 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Austria

178  A USTRIA REGION B Y REGION

t Piber St Nicholas. The only original complex was built in 1640 to
feature is the presbytery. Rebuilt designs by Domenico Sciassia.
Road map F4. £ Köflach. @
* 500. n (03144) 72 777-0. in 1673 in the Baroque style, the The church dates from the
Stud: Tel (03144) 3323-100. Open church was subsequently given 14th century, but it was rebuilt
Apr–Oct: 9:30am–5pm daily; Nov– a Neo-Renaissance facelift in the Baroque style and today
Mar: guided tours only. & 8 during the Neo-Classical period. it is a triple-nave basilica with
Inside are statues of the medieval frescoes on the walls
Piber is the location of the Piber 12 apostles by the local artist and presbytery ceiling, and
Federal Stud, the breeding farm Balthasar Brandstätter. A side statues of the church’s fathers
for Vienna’s Spanish Riding altar contains a small wooden in the organ enclosure. The
School (see p71). When the town statue of the Madonna and Child, main altar (1632) by Valentin
of Lipizza was incorporated into dating from 1500. The Magda- Khautt is 16 m (52 ft) high.
Slovenia after World War I, it lenenkirche, church of St Mary North of the church, by the
was in a former castle in Piber, Magdalene, features lovingly cemetery, stands a 12th-century
a small Styrian village, that the restored Gothic stained-glass Romanesque chapel. The abbey
famous Lipizzaner horses found windows. The town also has a also has a magnifi cent library
a new home. museum devoted and an interesting
The horses are a complex mainly to the region’s museum with a collec-
mixture of six different breeds. history and art. tion of the old
Born dark-chestnut or black, furnishings of
they acquire their famous white Environs: East of church and abbey,
colour between the ages of four the town, on the including Roman-
and ten. In Piber, the initial ledge of a rock, esque sculptures, a
selection of 5 out of 40 stallions stand the ruins of an 15th-century votive
takes place: they are assessed old Liechtenstein painting, The Mount
for their suitability and stage castle, once only of Olives, by Hans
talents before five years of acces sible by step von Tübingen, and
training at the Spanish Riding ladder. Beyond 15th-and 16th-
School. Those with a keen Judenburg are century stained-
passion for horses can purchase some interesting Image of the patron saint of glass panels. The
one of the stallions here. archae ological St Lambrecht Abbey gem of the
sites, which date museum, however,
y Judenburg from pre historic times. The is its collection of birds. Some
1,500 species were assembled in
famous chariot, now displayed
Road map E4. * 10,000. £ @ in the Joanneum Museum in the 19th century by the amateur
n Hauptplatz 20, (03572) 85000. Eggenberg Castle in Graz, was collector Blasius Hanf.
∑ judenburg.com unearthed in nearby Strettweg.
E St Lambrecht Abbey Museum
This town at the fork of a road is Hauptstrasse 1–2. Tel (03585) 2305-29.
an old mercantile centre that took u St Lambrecht Open for guided tours only mid-May–
its name from the Juden, or Jews, Road map E4. * 1,900. @ £ mid-Oct: 10:45am, 2:30pm Mon–Sat,
who once lived and traded here. nHauptstrasse 12 (03585) 2305. 2:30pm Sun & hols.
When Emperor Maximilian ∑ stlambrecht.at
expel led the Jews in 1496, the
town went into decline. Not much St Lambrecht, a Benedictine i Turracher Höhe
remains of the medieval Jewish abbey, was founded in the Road map E5. * 100. @ n(04275)
quarter, but it is worth visiting 12th century by Henry III, duke 8392. ∑ turracherhoehe.com
Nikolauskirche, the church of of Carinthia. The monastery
This small ski resort nestles at
an altitude of 1,700 m (5,575 ft)
high in the Nockbergen (Nock
mountains), one of Austria’s
most scenic Alpine ranges, on
the border between Styria and
Carinthia. The town makes a
great base for year-round walks
in the woods and mountain
meadows. Nearby are the
remains of an old iron-smelting
plant. The blast furnace ended
its opera tion in the early 20th
century, but the remains of
heavy industry create a very
The world-famous Lipizzaner horses in a paddock near Piber striking feature set against the
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp295–6 and pp318–20

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