Gurk Cathedral

Gurk Cathedral (German: Dom zu Gurk, Slovene: Krška stolnica) is an Austrian basilica in Gurk (Slovene: Krka), Carinthia, that was built in the high Romanesque style from 1140 to 1200. It is considered to be one of the most important Romanesque church buildings in Europe. The long building has a west front with two towers, a gallery, a crypt, and three apses.

The crypt, with its 100 columns, is the oldest part of the cathedral. In 1174, the grave of Saint Hemma of Gurk was relocated there from th short-lived Gurk Abbey, which she had founded and which was dissolved by her executor, Blessed Gebhard of Salzburg, in order to fund the construction of the cathedral and its diocese.

In the middle of the rural Gurktal, the imposing 60-meter-tall twin towers of the cathedral can be seen from a very great distance.

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