Tregist village chapel

The Tregist village chapel, also known as the Ortskapelle Tregist or the Chapel of Mary, Untier of Knots, is a Roman Catholic chapel located in the municipality of Bärnbach in western Styria. The chapel, dedicated to Holy Mary, is part of the Voitsberg parish and thus belongs to the Voitsberg pastoral area in the Styrian central region of the Graz-Seckau diocese.

The first chapel on the site was consecrated in 1884, destroyed by a flood in the 1950s and subsequently demolished. Between 1986 and 1989, a new building was erected with the help of the local community and designed by the West Styrian sculptor and painter Franz Weiss. Weiss decorated both the exterior walls and the interior as a total work of art using a variety of artistic techniques, and created almost all the artistic design elements of the chapel himself. Only the two stained-glass windows were made by another master according to his designs.

The exterior walls of the chapel are adorned with large, colourful murals depicting biblical motifs with images of saints, popes and people who have rendered outstanding services to the proclamation of the Christian teachings. In addition to saints such as Martin of Tours, Mother Teresa and Hélder Câmara can also be seen. A regional reference is repeatedly made in the motifs, for example with houses from the area surrounding the chapel where Jesus carries the cross. The Pope's visits to Austria are also depicted. The main image on the altar shows Mary untying knots from a ribbon. An inscription on the ribbon and the depiction of the power station refer to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. At Christmastime, a nativity village is set up around the chapel, consisting of six panels with motifs from the Christmas story. The entire building is a protected monument.^[1]