Parish church Pöllau

The former collegiate church of St. Vitus of the Augustinian canons is now a parish church; it was first mentioned in documents in 1163 as the centre of the parish of Pöllau.

The collegiate church was built in 1701-12 by Joachim Carlone and Remigius Horner and decorated with frescoes by Mathias von Görz. It is considered an important example of Styrian High Baroque. A stone pieta (around 1420) is also significant.

The building's appearance, which is still characteristic of the monastery and church today, was given to it by the new construction under the provosts Michael Maister (1669-1696) and Johann Ernst von Ortenhofen (1697-1743). Michael Maister encouraged the painting talent of a young boy, Mathias von Görz, and enabled him to receive a solid education from Mathias Echter and to undertake subsequent study trips. The significant result is the entire painterly decoration of the Pöllau Collegiate Church, a highlight of Austrian church painting in the early 18th century.

The church building, which resembles St. Peter's Church in Rome in its architecture, is also known as the "Styrian St. Peter's Basilica". Since 1990 it has been a daughter church of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.

The organ by Johann Georg Mitterreither from 1741 was restored by Helmut Allgäuer in 1989.

As early as 1785, the canons' monastery was abolished and the monastery's assets were converted into a state dominion. In 1938, the monastery became the property of the market town of Pöllau.