Villach Friary

Villach Friary is a Franciscan friary, responsible for the parish of St. Nicholas in Villach, Carinthia, Austria.
In 1886, because of a great shortage of priests, Mgr. Peter Funder, bishop of Gurk, asked the Tyrolean Franciscan Province to take on the spiritual care of the parish of Sankt Nikolai in Villach. In the same year the first Franciscans arrived in the town and moved into the Capuchin friary, suppressed in 1786. Both the friary and the next-door church were so desolate, however, that both had to be demolished in the following year and rebuilt. Most of the cost was borne by Stephan Dionys Cserveny von Zabor from Salzburg. Thus, despite massive resistance from the municipal authorities, the friary was newly established in 1888 and the removal of the old church began in 1890/91. The church and the high altar were built to plans by the Franciscan Fr. Johannes Maria Reiter and were formally consecrated in 1896.

Wikipedia