!!!Maria Taferl

Maria Taferl, Lower Austria, market town in the district of Melk, alt. 
443 m, pop. 811, area 12.19 km%%sup 2/%, 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
J. Weichselbaum, Maria Taferl. Wallfahrtskirche zur 
Schmerzhaften Muttergottes, 1980.


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