Kleinsöding church

The Church of Kleinsöding, often simply called Sebastianikirche, is a Roman Catholic filial and pilgrimage church in the Austrian village of Kleinsöding in western Styria, which belongs to the municipality of Söding-Sankt Johann. The church, consecrated in honor of St. Sebastian, belongs to the pastoral area of Voitsberg in the diocese of Graz-Seckau and is subordinate to the parish of Mooskirchen. As a pilgrimage church, it only plays a local role for Kleinsöding and the surrounding villages. Its history dates back to the beginning of the 16th century, when it was built as a plague sanctuary. The origins of the church are closely linked to the outbreaks of plague in the 15th century, which almost completely depopulated parts of the surrounding area. Surviving farmers swore an oath to pay the so-called Kühzins over the course of their lives. They promised to donate the equivalent value of a cow. The money raised in this way financed the building of the church. Due to renewed plague epidemics in the 17th century, the church developed into the most important plague sanctuary in western Styria. In the second half of the 17th century, a sacristy and the Chapel of the Cross were added and the church itself was baroqueized. In the centuries that followed, however, its importance as a place of pilgrimage declined. Since the second half of the 19th century, the building has been owned

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