Maria Taferl#

Maria Taferl, Lower Austria, market town in the district of Melk, alt. 443 m, pop. 811, area 12.19 km2, tourist resort (33,000 overnight stays), popular destination for day trippers and Lower Austria´s greatest Marian shrine; situated on a terrace above the River Danube and the Nibelungengau (region around the Lower Austrian town of Poechlarn). Each year 250,000 to 300,000 pilgrims visit Maria Taferl; since the fall of the Iron Curtain a strong influx of tourists from Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic has been noted. - Baroque parish and pilgrimage church situated on a terrace high above the Danube Valley; built between 1660 and 1710; dome by J. Prandtauer, east tower and west tower roofed with onion helms, fountain with a marble statue and large stone (Taferl Stone, probably Celtic sacrificial altar) in the forecourt, Baroque frescoes (1713-1718) by A. Beduzzi and other artists, high altar (Altar of Miracles, 1735), altar pieces by M. J. and J. G. Schmidt, pulpit (1726), magnificent Rococo organ (1759/60), treasury housing monstrances, vestments and reliquaries, Baroque presbytery with a magnificent Rococo room (Kaiserzimmer). In 1947 Maria Taferl was awarded the title of basilica minor.

Literature#