Kerschdorf: Georgijagen, Church and Wayside Shrines

Discovering Kerschdorf’s cultural heritage

Kerschdorf is a destination for travellers who want to combine their stay with regional culture and specific historical features. In the village, you will encounter a traditional Carinthian practice, a listed branch church and several wayside shrines, each with its own design. For families, this can become a trip in which not just one particular highlight matters, but many small discoveries help make the village easier to understand.

A holiday apartment in Kerschdorf provides the right setting if you want to organise your days according to your own interests. You can focus on cultural topics, explore the area’s history or include individual sights in your personal plans. It is worth taking a close look at the different details of the buildings and religious imagery rather than treating them merely as points along the way.

Georgijagen: a traditional practice

In Kerschdorf ob Velden/Črešnje, a group of children once went through the village on the day before St George’s Day. This practice is known as Georgijagen or Šentjurja jagat. In 2025, it was added to the inventory of intangible cultural heritage practices in Carinthia. It is a former local tradition, not a regular scheduled event for your trip today.

This tradition offers a special way into Kerschdorf, particularly for visitors interested in customs and regional identity. It shows that local history can be read not only in buildings, but was also passed on through communal practices. If you are travelling with children, this example provides an accessible way to talk about the significance of feast days, traditional roles and the transmission of traditions.

A church and wayside shrines with distinctive features

The branch church of St Ulrich in Kerschdorf is protected as a historic monument under an ordinance. This makes it an independent cultural point of reference in the village. Anyone interested in sacred architecture can include the church in their travel plans and consider the character of the branch church in connection with the other local cultural landmarks.

The Wrotschnig Cross is particularly rich in detail. It is a broad-pillar wayside shrine on the road to Lake Forstsee. In its niche, Friedrich Jerina painted a saint motif in 1979. Phyllite slate was also used for the Wrotschnig Cross. This material adds a specific structural aspect to the art-historical information and also makes the cross interesting for visitors who pay attention to forms, materials and regional design.

The Wrotschnig Cross stands in Kerschdorf, south of and next to the Kerschdorf Forstsee road. Another landmark is the Old Cross: it is a three-sided column shrine near the Bürger property, west of the fire station. The two wayside shrines therefore already differ in their architectural forms and in their described locations.

Which accommodation suits your travel plans?

If you choose Kerschdorf because of its cultural heritage, focus your accommodation search above all on how you want to organise your days and on the location you would like to use as a base. A holiday apartment may be appealing to travellers who want to organise their stay independently and combine cultural discoveries with their own periods of relaxation.

For further ideas for suitable destinations, you can also visit the following places: Feistritz An Der Drau, Laastadt, Stuben, Selpritsch, Rosegg, Arnoldstein, Ragain and Bad Bleiberg.

For the overarching travel overview: Villach.