!!!Mariazell

Mariazell, Styria, town in the district of Bruck an der Mur, town, 
alt. 868 m, pop. 1,947, place of pilgrimage, tourist resort and 
winter sports resort situated on a hill on the upper reaches of the 
River Salza, near the Lower Austrian border and Lake Erlaufsee, 
encircled by the Styrian and Lower Austrian ranges of the Limestone 
Alps (e.g. Buergeralm Mountain). - District court, provincial 
hospital, youth hostel, indoor swimming pool. - Most important Marian 
shrine in Central Europe visited by pilgrims from Hungary, Slovakia, 
the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia etc. - Was made a market town in 
1342; granted its town charter in 1948. Mariazell started as a 
settlement set up beside a small monastery (Latin "cella") which was 
founded by Benedictine monks of the monastery of St. Lambrecht in the 
middle of the 12%%sup th/%  century (probably in 1157). Parts of the 
church, which was made an official place of pilgrimage in 1330, were 
erected on order of the Hungarian king Ludwig I, e.g. the east choir 
(1330-1350), the nave (1359-1393) and the much revered Chapel of 
Miracles (around 1369). From 1430-1440 a Gothic tower was erected. 
This tower was preserved together with the nave that had already been 
redesigned in Baroque style and extended by two side chapels when the 
church was enlarged by D. Sciassia between 1644 and 1683. Interior 
decorated with 17%%sup th/%  century stuccowork by Italian artists; 
high altar by J. B. Fischer v. Erlach (1693); the Chapel of 
Miracles houses a silver altar by J. E. Fischer v. Erlach 
(1727) on which pilgrims venerate the much revered miraculous 
representation of the Virgin in the form of a 47 centimetre high Early 
Gothic limewood statue dating from the second half of the 13%%sup th/% 
 century. Apart from numerous votive offerings dating from the more 
recent past, the treasury on the south gallery contains a 
representation of the Virgin with Child (around 1370) that was given 
to the church by the Hungarian king Ludwig I in thanks for his 
deliverance from the Turks. On the galleries are numerous votive 
pictures of folkloric interest which were created between the 
17%%sup th/%  and the 20%%sup th/%  centuries.

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Around 1480 pilgrims from 16 different countries came to Mariazell. 
The miracles which had occurred there are depicted on the altar pieces 
of the Small Altar of Miracles (1512) and the Large Altar of Miracles 
(1519, now exhibited in the Joanneum, the provincial museum of Styria 
in Graz). From 1632 processions were held on a via sacra (pilgrimage 
path leading from Vienna to Mariazell) in which the Habsburg family 
actively participated. The majority of pilgrims who visited Mariazell 
came from the Habsburg lands and the regions of the Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy. In 1757, 373,000 pilgrims attended the ceremonies held on 
the occasion of the 600%%sup th/%  anniversary of the pilgrimage town. 
Since 1893 men´s pilgrimages from Vienna to Mariazell have been 
organized once a year. In 1908 Mariazell was awarded the title of 
"basilica minor". From 1975-1991 the mortal remains of the Hungarian 
Cardinal J. Mindszenty were buried at Mariazell. In 1983 Pope John 
Paul II visited this famous pilgrimage town on his tour of Austria.

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Built over a spring, the Fountain Chapel (Brunnenkapelle, 1711) 
situated north of the basilica houses a Late Gothic statue of the 
Virgin. The presbytery (1693-1709) with its prelacy, its refectory and 
its two chapels (one of which is called Lamberti Chapel) is situated 
south of the basilica. There is also a war memorial which was created 
when the Gothic charnel house was redesigned in 1949. In front of the 
church visitors can admire two lead statues (probably created by B. 
Moell in 1757) which represent the Hungarian king Ludwig I and the 
Moravian margrave Heinrich. Numerous shrines have been erected in the 
vicinity of Mariazell, as well as along the various roads and paths 
used by pilgrims, e.g. the Chapel of St. Joseph housing three statues 
by L. Mattielli (1731), 15 Rosary Chapels (1650) along the road 
leading to the nearby village of St. Sebastian (with a church (by D. 
Sciassia, around 1650) containing a Gothic madonna, as well as a 
chapel with a larger-than-life lead crucifix created in Baroque style 
by B. Moll (1767)), the filial church of St. Sigmund (after 1443) 
situated on Sigmundsberg Hill near the municipality of Gusswerk, 
chapels and fountains along the roads to Graz and Seeberg Mountain, 
the Gothic parish church of St. Leonhard in the village of Seewiesen 
(consecrated in 1366). Pilgrimage road from Vienna to Mariazell via 
Maria-Enzersdorf, Heiligenkreuz, Alland, Noestach, Hafnerberg, 
Klein-Mariazell, Lilienfeld, Tuernitz, Annaberg and Josefsberg. 
Buergeralpe Mountain (alt. 1,266 m) at the summit of which is a 
hotel that can be reached by means of a cableway; T- bar lifts. Since 
1907 the narrow-gauge Mariazell Railway has linked the Lower Austrian 
town of St. Poelten with Mariazell and the municipality of Gusswerk.

!Literature
O. Wonisch, Mariazell Grosser Kunstfuehrer, 1977.


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