LAUBENDORF Austria (Carinthia).
On a high plateau N of the Lake of Millstatt, ca. 200 m above it. Here an Early Christian church was discovered in 1957 and by 1960 its main elements, which are all now visible, had been excavated. The complex differs in characteristic details from other early churches in S Noricum, being a single-naved church with recessed apse, in which the semicircular synthronon is not, as usual, freestanding but built directly into the wall of the apse. Also unusual is another built-in bench running along the N wall of the nave. The main entrance was on the W, a secondary entrance on the corner of the N wall at the start of the apse. There was no architectural ornament of any distinction, a fact not surprising in view of the area's isolation in Early Christian times, and no important finds made within the church. Its main significance is in the fact that because of its out-of-the-way location it documents the intensity of Christianization in the Roman alpine provinces. Whether one may see in it also the refuge of the Bishop of Teurnia, about 3 hours distant, is questionable.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. Dolenz, Festschrift Gotbert Moro (1962) 38ffMPI; R. Egger, Teurnia. Die römischer und frühchristlichen Altertümer Oberkärntens (7th ed. 1973).R. NOLL