Filial- und Klosterkirche hl. Anton von Padua

The church belongs to the first Styrian settlement of the Capuchins, which was built 1600-1602. At the time of construction, the location was in the Paulustor suburb. On August 8, 1600, 10,000 Protestant books and writings were probably burned here. This event marked the end of the Protestants' expulsion from the city of Graz. Only two days later, the papal nuncio erected a wooden cross at that point and laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Antonius Church. The church is dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. In the course of the Josephine reforms, the Capuchin monastery was closed in 1786 and used as a psychiatric institution from then on. After the construction of the special hospital in Graz-Puntigam, the Folklore Museum moved into the premises of the former monastery in 1913. The Antonius Church can only be recognized from the outside through the staircase and the simple gable facade with a round window. The medium-sized rectangular building has a smooth main facade with a triangular gable, in the center axis of which a round window is let. The single nave nave has three yokes. An elaborately designed, baroque high altar stands in the barrel-vaulted church interior. The altarpiece, painted in 1602 by the court artist Giovanni Pietro de Pomis - he was the architect of the mausoleum and the Katharinenkirche in Graz - glorifies the Counter-Reformation and represents a request for a blessing for the founding of the monastery. Another picture by de Pomis, originally intended for the Poor Clares Church, which no longer exists, shows Archduchess Maria, the founder of the Poor Clare Monastery in Paradise. The Christ Child, sitting in his mother's lap, raises his hand over the Archduchess in a blessing. In addition to simply designed pews (18th century) and two marble holy water basins (17th century), the interior contains a wooden crucifix by Alexander Silveri, the pulpit (around 1775/80) with a curved basket and acoustic roof, two side altars and a late Baroque tabernacle .