Spitalkirche zum Heiligen Geist

Spitalkirche zum Heiligen Geist stands in Meran, Italy, as a late Gothic church with a three-aisled hall. Its ten-sided choir stretches across all three naves, an unusual feature in South Tyrol. At the main entrance, a tympanum presents the Holy Trinity beside figures of the founders.

Count Meinhard II of Tyrol and Elisabeth of Bavaria founded the church in 1271 beside a hospital. The hospital sheltered poor people, the sick, wanderers, and pilgrims under the Teutonic Order. A flood destroyed the original building in 1419 after the Kummersee burst its banks. Duke Sigmund the Rich in Coins then oversaw reconstruction, completed with consecration in 1483.

Inside, Franz Xaver Pendl’s Baroque Pentecost altar incorporates late Gothic winged reliefs by Jörg Lederer. Ambrosius Gander’s Crucifixion fresco survives on the southern exterior wall, painted around 1450. The church has stood under monument protection since 1949, preserving Meran’s medieval care and artistic heritage.