Chiesa dello Spirito Santo

Merano's Church of the Holy Ghost stands on the left bank of the Passer, outside the old town. Its origins as a hospital church connect late-Gothic architecture with the medieval care of poor, sick and travelling people.

Why it matters

Count Meinhard II of Tyrol and Elisabeth of Bavaria founded the church and hospital in 1271. The institution records a part of Merano's history preceding its later reputation as a spa town.

What to notice

The three-aisled hall opens towards a broad polygonal chancel. The entrance tympanum depicts the Trinity with figures of the founders. A Crucifixion fresco by Ambrosius Gander, dated 1450, survives on the southern exterior wall. Interior furnishings include a Pentecost altar by Franz Xaver Pendl and late-Gothic reliefs by Jörg Lederer.

Context and history

A flood destroyed the earlier church in 1419. Reconstruction under Duke Sigismund of Austria produced the building consecrated in 1483. Its changing architecture and surviving artworks preserve both the disruption caused by the river and the continuity of the hospital church's devotional role.