The chapel of Santa Barbara, in Merano, stands behind the apse of the parish church. Originally it was the funerary chapel of the cemetery that until 1848 surrounded the town's main church, and of which there is information from 1335. The present building goes back to a rebuilding of the years between 1420 and 1440, presumably the work of the Bavarian builder Hans von Burghausen.
What to see
The chapel has an octagonal plan on two floors and a pyramid roof. The upper floor is entered through two Gothic doorways, up six steps: it is a single room, with a vault decorated by ribs.
Three altars are kept here. That of the Immaculate with the Child Jesus is ascribed to Mathias Pussjäger; then there is a fifteenth-century Gothic winged altar, from Germany, bought in 1895; the altar of St Barbara was commissioned by the confraternity of coopers, again from Pussjäger, and the side statues by Gregor Schwenzengast were added to it later.
Visiting
The floor normally open to the public is the upper one. Opening times should be checked on the spot.
Our editors' tip
Beneath the chapel is a second room, which originally served as an ossuary: a vaulted chamber supported by four granite columns.
