Page 181 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Austria

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Splendid autumn colours in the woods around Turracher Höhe
backdrop of the pistes and family but its star attraction is p Oberwölz
the beautiful snow-covered the main altar (1655), a mag- Road map E4. * 3,000.
hills of the ski resort. nificent work by local Baroque Tel (03581) 8420.
masters, incorporating a Gothic
painting of the Crucifixion This small town, which grew
o Murau (c.1500). Also worth seeing rich through its trade in salt and
Road map E4. * 3,700. @ £ are the medieval frescoes of the smelting of silver excavated
Tel (03532) 2720. ∑ murau.at St Anthony in the transept, and in the surrounding hills, has
the Entombment of Christ and preserved some of its former
Murau sprang up in the 13th Annunciation in the main nave. glory. In the surrounding area
century at a crossroads of trading The castle behind the church, many archaeological finds from
routes on the scenic Mur river Schloss Murau, was founded the Hallstatt period have been
and became a local centre for by the Liechtenstein family unearthed, revealing a long
commerce and industry. The and later passed into the hands history. Oberwölz once
historic town centre of Murau of the Schwarzenbergs. It has belonged to the bishopric of
lies on the left bank of the Mur an interesting museum of Freising and up to the time of
river. Its Renaissance houses metallurgy. In the vaults of the Napoleonic wars its envoy
are domi nated by the Gothic Elisabethkirche, at No. 4 resided in the neighbouring
Matthäuskirche, the church of Marktgasse, is a Diocesan Schloss Rothenfels.
St Matthew, consecrated in the Protestant Museum that holds The town has some well-
13th century and later altered documents relating to the preserved remains of medieval
in the Baroque style. The church events around the Reformation fortifications, including three
contains some interesting and Counter-Reformation in turrets and two town gates.
epitaphs of the Liechtenstein these parts of Austria. Its pride is the Gothic
Stadtpfarrkirche St Martin,
the parish church of St Martin,
a triple-nave basilica with an
early-Gothic chapel and a 15th-
century Gothic vestibule. In
1777, J. A. von Mölk painted
the ceiling frescoes in the
chapel vault. On the external
south wall is a relief from 1500,
showing the Last Judgement.
Next to the church stands the
14th-century chapel of St
Sigismund, with the Way of the
Cross by Johann Lederwasch
from the turn of the 18th
century. In the Cultural Centre
is a regional museum with a
collection of archaeological
finds from the area, and a
Historic buildings in the old town of Murau on the Mur River museum of wind instruments.

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