| The Bildungshaus St. Virgil is a multi-functional facility that is used for seminars, conferences, lectures and various cultural events. It belongs to the archdiocese of Salzburg and can be found in the district of Aigen in the south of Salzburg. The building was designed by the famous Austrian architect Wilhelm Holzbauer. It was opened in 1976 and is considered to be among the most important examples for contemporary (aka post-war) architecture in western Austria. In general, contemporary fine arts play in important role at the Bildungshaus St. Virgil, especially if dealing with religion. There is an art curator at the facility and exhibitions are done rather frequently.
Permanent decorations of the building were provided by contemporary artists. These include some particularly noteworthy examples of art of the 1960ies and 1970ies dealing with religious and often biblical motives: The foyer contains a statue of St. Virgil (after whom the institution was named) by Josef Zenzmaier; the Emmaus-Chapel comes with a wall painting by Josef Mikl (he of the Redoutensäle of the Hofburg in Vienna); there is a study that has a 180 square metres large wall painting by Peter Pongratz; a meditation room was designed by Inge Dick; passion paintings in the antechapel were done by Pier Ragnhild Eckhoff; one of the seminar rooms contains a collage by Karl-Hartwig Kaltner; a bronze statue by Ruth Leibnitz depicts Kain and Abel; the dining hall was designed by Gerti Fröhlich; and a painting by Peter Pongratz that was made for the parish church of Unternberg in 1979 is in the Bildungshaus St. Virgil on a permanent loan because the community couldn′t stand it. |