A t t r a c t i o n s        

R a t h a u s (Town Hall)

Of the Late Gothic three-storey building of the 15th century there remain only the ogival arch portal and the cast-iron plaque engraved with 1468. Under the ogival arch the imperial crest is displayed above the crown, held by two angels, and bearing a quote from the “Sachsenspiegel” (Saxon law code) below: “Ains mans red ein halbe red, Man sol sy verhoren bed, MCCCCLXVIII”, (meaning that a judge must hear both parties, not just one, to pass a just judgement). and the Carinthian coat of arms. In the spandrels are the four saints Laurence, Andrew, Wolfgang and Sebaldus, as well as the emblem of the family who endowed the building, the Kaltenhauser father and son. In 1754, the landscape stucco plasterer Marx Josef Pittner (1705 -1760) created the magnificent late Baroque façade on the wall of the building, based on a design by Johann Pacher, and thereby created a masterpiece that is unmatched throughout Carinthia.
The fanciful gargoyles shaped like dragons, the fanlight in the portal and the balustrade on the steps in the driveway are the work of the wrought-iron craftsman Franz Ortner of St. Veit, and date from about 1754.

The three-storey Renaissance arcades with sgraffito décor, which surround the courtyard impressively on all four sides, were added to the Town Hall in about 1540. On the east side of the courtyard is a small lapidarium of Roman funerary monuments. Even today, the council chamber on the first floor still has its wide Gothic vaulted ceiling, lavishly adorned with a late Baroque stucco by Pittner in 1754.

H a u p t p l a t z (Main Square)

Narrow and rectangular in shape (approx. 200:30 m), and evenly closed off on all sides by stately, mostly three-storey houses with three to six structural axes. This is an outstanding example of a medieval town square, with a largely intact ensemble of old buildings. 

The well-balanced spatial design is accentuated by three monuments, the central plague column and two fountains, one in the centre of the eastern, one in the western half. High gable roofs (originally covered butterfly roofs) sloping towards the square. The facades of the predominantly medieval houses in the town centre were to a great extent renovated or changed in the 17th and 18th century, or following the fire of 1829.

K a r n e r (Charnel House)

The Karner to the south of the parish church is a two-storey, circular Romanesque building which dates from the 12th or 13th century. Its basement, now half sunk into the ground and inaccessible, once served to store the skeletal remains removed from the graves, while the upper storey was a chapel of the dead. The building stands in the middle of the former graveyard. Since 1930, it has been the town’s war memorial. To the right of the portal, a fragment of a Carolingian wickerwork-patterned stone, allegedly the oldest stone monument in St. Veit an der Glan, is built into the wall. Inside the building is a larger-than-life Late Gothic crucified Christ, a masterpiece dating from about 1500.

S t a d t p f a r r k i r c h e (Parish Church)

The parish church dedicated to Saint Veit (since the 18th century, also to the Most Holy Trinity) is a three-nave Late Romanesque pier basilica of the 12th and early 13th century, with a tower for the chancel in the east, once presumably joined to a semicircular apse. 

In the tiered design of the doorway, the western portal displays four small columns on each side with crocket capitals, also a leaf design outside, and is adorned with rows of balls on the inside, which continue in the bordering of the arch.


In the relief on the arch bay, we see the Lamb of God between lions and eagles, and on the edge of the arch the inscription STA. RETRZ. SISTE. PEDAM. MUN. LATUR. INEDEM. FRATRIS. AMICICIA. PANDITUR. ISTA. VIA (“Hold, restrain your step! If you bring your offering to this house, your brother’s love will open to you”). A Celtic symbol can be seen in the stag’s antlers above the portal. Late Baroque Lady’s altar (1752) and Floriani altar (1747) made by the St. Veit wood carver Johann Pacher. Old tombstones and Roman stones are integrated in the outside walls of the church.

V o g e l w e i d e  -  B r u n n e n  F o u n t a i n

The marble Walther von der Vogelweide Fountain, which is beautifully well-balanced in its proportions, adorns the south-western half of the square.

The fountain was built in 1676, and renovated in 1960. The exquisitely-decorated octagonal basin, which stands on a four-tiered stepped pedestal, is crowned with superbly-forged spiral grillwork. The baluster mounted in the centre supports two bowls, over whose rims water cascades into the basin. Above them all stands the statue of the minstrel Walther von der Vogelweide, which was recast in bronze by Professor L. Szadei in 1960.

S c h ü s s e l b r u n n e n  F o u n t a i n

The broad stone bowl of the Schüsselbrunnen (“bowl fountain”) is of Roman origin, and the foot of the upper part also still displays Roman cabled fluting and the ring with its antique egg and dart ornamentation. The lower part was given an octagonal shape when the bowl was set here in 1566. The number and a master’s sign are inscribed on a small plaque, and Saint Veit on another. In the basin are rosettes. The three-tiered marble base has been renovated several times.
One very remarkable work of art is the bronze miner (perhaps an official), who stands just over a metre high in the middle of the basin, and is popularly known as the “Schüsselbrunnpartele” (“the bowl fount fellow”). He wears the characteristic national costume and cap and is formed with delicate, masterly finesse.

P e s t s ä u l e (Plague Column)

The marble Plague Column in the middle of the square is the creation of the St. Veit sculptor Angelo de Putti, a native of Padua, and was commissioned by the town council and the citizens after the plague of 1715 had been overcome. Three sides of the main pedestal (which is surrounded by a balustrade) are adorned with inscriptions, and the third side with the imperial eagle. On the eastern side stands the altar, and also the grotto dedicated to Saint Rosalia Sanibaldi of Palermo, who has been particularly venerated as a plague protection saint since the 17th century. On the second pedestal stands the slender, three-sided obelisk, bearing the figures of God the Father and the Son, as well as the dove of the Holy Spirit. The pedestal is surrounded by the statues of the Immaculate Virgin and the four Saints Rochus, Sebastian, Aloisius and Franz Xaver.

T o w n P a r k   &   R o s e G a r d e n

The queen of the flowers invites you to rest for a while in a secret garden, the "St. Veit Rose Garden" (“Rosengarten”), on the medieval town wall. Artistic elements of the design include benches, a pergola and a fountain. The flower beds are taken care of by the municipal gardeners of St. Veit, who also take care of the flower beds which were laid out last year on the town wall between the "La Torre" restaurant and the "Bräuhaus" disco.