Bleiburg – Art, Churches and Wiesenmarkt
Accommodation in Bleiburg
Bleiburg between art, architectural heritage and market traditions
When you choose Bleiburg as your destination, you can expect a place with closely interconnected cultural, architectural and event-related themes. The Werner Berg Museum, historic churches, listed buildings and the Bleiburg Wiesenmarkt, which has been held for centuries, each offer a different focus. These are complemented by contemporary dance, Slovenian culture, as well as paths leading to wayside shrines and cultural monuments. This means that your stay can be shaped not only around a single program item, but around several clearly distinct experiences.
Art at the Werner Berg Museum
The Werner Berg Museum opened in 1968 as the Werner Berg Gallery of the City of Bleiburg. It presents the artist’s oeuvre in close interaction with the art and environment of the core area of his origins. The core collection comprises oil paintings, woodcuts, watercolors, drawings and sketches. In annually changing exhibitions, the museum also displays parts of its permanent collection together with works by other artists. This combines an ongoing engagement with Werner Berg with changing artistic perspectives.
Churches and listed buildings
A walk through the historic town center allows you to experience Bleiburg’s long history in numerous places. Bleiburg/Pliberk Parish Church is a large late Gothic church built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its choir features a net-vault ceiling dating from 1512. The nave of the parish church of Saints Peter and Paul also contains six stained-glass windows designed by Karl Vouk in 2004. They depict episodes from the life of Saint Hemma of Gurk and were created as part of the revived Hemma pilgrimage route from Pilštanj in Slovenia to Gurk.
The Heiligengrab pilgrimage church stands on a Calvary hill and was built between 1761 and 1772 with two Baroque-style towers. Thurn-Valsassina Castle is protected as a listed monument by official decree pursuant to Section 3. The former BĂĽrgerspital Chapel of St. Erasmus is also protected as a listed monument. The local history of art and architecture also includes the Goiginger Barracks, with art-in-architecture room installations by Kiki Kogelnik and Reimo Wukounig
Wiesenmarkt and regional culture
The Bleiburg Wiesenmarkt has been held since 1393 and always takes place at the beginning of September. Its traders’ market stretches for four kilometers; the festival also includes a large amusement park. At the Alpe-Adria tent, exhibitors from Carinthia, Slovenia and Italy offer regional specialties. A permanent link between market history and art is formed by the Freyungs Fountain: Pop Art artist Kiki Kogelnik created it in 1994 from Gummern marble to mark the 600th anniversary of the Bleiburg Wiesenmarkt.
Paths, landscape and other aspects of your stay
The art cycling routes are marked with a yellow sunflower and signs, and pass numerous wayside shrines and cultural monuments. The Bleiburg adventure outdoor pool, built in 1929/30, offers recreation and relaxation against the backdrop of the Petzen and Bleiburg Castle. In the wider region, the Flow Country Trail on the Petzen is 11.5 km long. The cable car to the Petzen takes you to the SiebenhĂĽtten viewpoint at an elevation of 1,700 m; from there, the view extends across the South Carinthia region and far westward to the GroĂźglockner.
Contemporary culture is also part of the townscape: the Center for Choreography Bleiburg/Pliberk is a bilingual cultural institution for contemporary dance. The Kulturni dom Pliberk/Bleiburg association was founded in 1993; construction of the building began in 1996. One of its tasks is to convey Slovenian culture to the majority population in Carinthia. If you would like to compare additional destinations for your travel planning, you can also find Koprein Petzen, Feistritz Ob Bleiburg, Diex and Sankt Michael Ob Bleiburg here.
For the main travel overview: Völkermarkt.
