Pilgrimage Church Maria Straßengel: A High Gothic Marian Shrine in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Fortified Church
On this page22 sections
History
Pilgrimage Church Maria Straßengel is a protected Roman Catholic pilgrimage church in Austria, located in Judendorf-Straßengel within the municipality of Gratwein-Straßengel. Built by the Cistercians of Rein Abbey in the High Gothic period, the present church grew from a Marian pilgrimage site established in the 12th century and remains dedicated to the Holy Name of Mary.
Origins and the Marian pilgrimage
The origins of worship on the hill reach back to the middle of the 12th century. Rein Abbey regards 1158 as the foundation year, while the historian Clemens Brandter proposed 1147. A chapel is securely mentioned in 1208. Art historians Kurt Woisetschläger and Peter Krenn have suggested that the site may be the oldest Marian pilgrimage center in Styria, although this attribution remains cautious.
In 1147, Margrave Ottokar III of Styria granted Rein Abbey rights in Straßengel. The Cistercians, a reform branch of Western Christian monasticism founded in the 11th century, probably established a chapel near an important road in territory belonging to the Archdiocese of Salzburg. A later foundation tradition says that Ottokar brought a Marian image back from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The story is historically implausible because Ottokar is not known to have undertaken such a journey.
Christian burials took place on the present Kirchberg around the year 1000. The wider ecclesiastical organization was connected with the Salzburg mother parish of Gratwein, first mentioned in 1188. Straßengel itself had already been recorded in 860 under one of two place names identified as Strazinolum. The early chapel and its Marian image attracted increasing numbers of pilgrims, and the original structure was probably enlarged or replaced by a larger stone building during the 13th century. Abbot Bernhard of Plankenwarth probably considered a rebuilding around 1266.
Jurisdiction, relics, and the Gothic rebuilding
The income generated by pilgrimage brought the chapel into conflict with the Salzburg parish of Gratwein. In 1208, Archbishop Eberhard II recognized rights held by Rein through donations. The following year, the chapel was removed from Gratwein’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction and assigned permanently to Rein Abbey. Eberhard confirmed the decision at the Synod of Friesach in 1211. The separation was confirmed again in 1312.
A second object of veneration appeared in 1255, when a root crucifix, a devotional image formed from tree-root fibres, was reportedly found in a fir tree near the chapel. In 1313, the chapel received the right to grant a forty-day indulgence on certain feast days, and in 1317 this privilege was extended to people attending services on Saturdays and Sundays. By 1322, the chapel had more than one altar.
The foundation stone of the present church was laid by Abbot Hertwig of Emerberg on 8 December 1346. His successor, Abbot Seifried of Waldstein, oversaw its completion, and Bishop Ulrich III consecrated the building on 8 September 1355. The Viennese-born Rein monks Johannes and Marcus Zeyricker made a substantial contribution to the Gothic rebuilding, introducing design ideas associated with St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. Donations and material assistance from Archduke Rudolf IV probably enabled the completion of the imposing eastern tower, and the church was probably finished around 1366.
Rudolf IV’s influence may account for the building’s partly Romanizing forms. These forms probably referred to the architecture of the era of his great-grandfather Rudolf I and expressed dynastic power and historical legitimacy. Cistercian influence on the design remained limited, although the corbelled wall shafts follow Cistercian building practice.
Pilgrimage growth and institutional conflict
Straßengel developed into an important pilgrimage center with numerous indulgences. Rein Abbey provided pastoral care for pilgrims, while the spiritual care of local inhabitants remained with Gratwein. Some inhabitants consequently identified more closely with Rein and refused to pay tithes to Gratwein.
Large crowds led to a special permission in 1437 for outdoor Masses with portable altars on Saturdays and Sundays after Easter. The dispute between Rein and Gratwein reached a peak in 1453 and was settled by a compromise on 3 March 1483. Gratwein received one-third of the tithe from Straßengel, while Rein was restricted from celebrating certain Sunday and feast-day Masses and funeral services there. The settlement formally confirmed the church’s exempt legal status. In 1607, Rein Abbey exchanged the monastery at Friesach with Salzburg Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and received the parish of Gratwein in return, ending the long institutional dispute.
The church’s devotional importance continued into the early modern period. In 1757, during celebrations of its sixth centenary, a Marian column was erected at Siebenbründl on the road to Graz. The remains of a Roman martyr named Bonifacitius were placed in the Annakapelle. They were later, but incorrectly, identified in popular devotion as the remains of Saint Boniface of Tarsus.
Reforms, threatened demolition, and renewed parish life
The parish reforms of Emperor Joseph II, the 18th-century Habsburg ruler whose measures reorganized church administration, divided the Gratwein parish area into seven independent parishes in 1782. Maria Straßengel became a local chaplaincy in 1785, but the arrangement lasted only until 1788. A cemetery was laid out and a schoolhouse was established during this period.
Declining pilgrim numbers and the church’s difficult hilltop location led officials to recommend closure. The church was desecrated on 29 October 1788, and plans were made to demolish it. Its stone and the proceeds from associated buildings were to be used for a new schoolhouse in the lowlands. Local resistance, including a petition to Joseph II, prevented the demolition. The chaplaincy was dissolved, but the church became a filial church of Gratwein in 1789. Because the desecration had not been fully carried out and was later judged canonically invalid, reconsecration was not required. A new order of worship was approved on 26 February 1789.
The Marian image was secretly taken to Gratwein in November 1788 and returned to Straßengel on 9 April 1789. The root crucifix remained at Gratwein until early November 1827. In 1858, Pope Pius IX granted a plenary indulgence for the site’s 700th anniversary. About 85,600 people visited between Easter Sunday and All Saints’ Day that year.
When Judendorf-Straßengel became an independent municipality in 1909, local residents sought to establish Straßengel as an independent parish. Rein Abbey opposed the plan because it owned the church and would have had to transfer it to the Diocese of Graz-Seckau. An independent cemetery was nevertheless secured and consecrated by Rein Abbot Eugen Amreich on 30 April 1922. Further efforts to create a local chaplaincy failed in 1951.
Parish life gradually expanded during the 20th century. Official Easter celebrations began in 1956, a First Communion took place in 1963, and a parish council was elected in 1969. That year, a missar and an auxiliary pastoral worker with authority to perform marriages were appointed. After Rein Abbey rejected full parish independence in 1971, Bishop Johann Weber announced the legally effective establishment of the Expositure Maria Straßengel on 1 January 1972, with its own parish registers. The precise boundary with Gratwein was fixed on 1 July 1984.
The Friends of Maria Straßengel association, founded in 1975, promoted comprehensive restoration. Repeated conservation campaigns have addressed the stained glass, interior, exterior, tower, and sacristy. In 2020, the southwest windows were repaired after rain damaged their lead cames and loosened the glass. The church remains a Marian pilgrimage site, while also serving for Easter celebrations, baptisms, weddings, and concerts connected with the Styria Organ Spring festival since 2018.
Remains
The church stands on the southwest side of Gratwein-Straßengel, about 200 metres southeast of the center of Judendorf-Straßengel. It occupies a partly wooded terminal hill about 454 metres above sea level, with the churchyard more than 60 metres above the settlement and overlooking the Gratkorn basin. A defensive wall from around the middle of the 15th century encloses the church and churchyard, giving the complex the appearance of a fortified church. Three entrances serve the enclosure, and loopholes survive in its eastern section.
Churchyard and outer enclosure
Eastern gateway
The eastern entrance is a round-arched gateway with a Baroque frame. Its badly damaged wall painting, created in the second quarter of the 18th century, shows Mary in the Ear-of-Grain Dress, the tree associated with the root crucifix, and Saints Benedict and Bernard seated among clouds.
Churchyard buildings
The churchyard contains a rectory built in 1494, a tavern dating from 1582, and the Beneficiates’ House, also known as the New Building, erected after 1684. A cemetery lies on the southeastern slope beside the approach road.
High Gothic church and towers
Nave and choirs
Maria Straßengel is a three-aisled High Gothic hall church with an approximately rectangular plan and a southeast orientation. Its broad nave has five bays, while the two narrower aisles each have four bays. Each aisle ends in a five-eighths choir, creating a staggered arrangement of three eastern choir spaces. The interior is about 12.6 metres wide. The central nave is approximately 28 metres long and 13.8 metres high, and is about one and a half times as wide as either aisle. The side aisles measure 23.7 metres in length.
Cross-ribbed vaults cover the nave and aisles. The central vault has pear-shaped ribs and round bosses carried by eight pairs of clustered piers, each 9.12 metres high. Foliage-decorated capitals, bosses, wall consoles, and symbols of the evangelists enrich the interior. A painted inscription records renovation work carried out by Abbot Georg Freyseisen in 1599.
Eastern tower
The larger northeastern tower is octagonal and three storeys high. It rises approximately 48 metres from the ground to its summit, standing 33.5 metres above the eaves of the northeastern choir. Its openwork stone spire has an octagonal plan, crocketed ribs, and elaborate symbolic ornament. The 17-metre spire ends in a three-metre-high finial made between 1868 and 1870. Sculptures on the tower probably represent patrons, builders, monks, and craftsmen, although several identifications remain uncertain.
Tall two-light pointed-arch windows mark the third storey. Eight life-sized stone figures of Mary and the seven angels of the Apocalypse stand between the gables. Four are modern copies, while the originals are preserved in the Friedrichskapelle. Eight animal-shaped gargoyles include dogs or lions, a winged dragon, and a fish.
Bell tower and stair turret
The smaller northwestern tower rises above the double chapel and serves as the bell tower. Built in 1455, it was heightened in 1828 and has a slate-covered pointed spire. Four bells hang within it. Replacement bells were consecrated in 1988 after wartime losses and damage.
An octagonal Gothic stair turret at the northern end of the west wall contains a stone spiral staircase leading to the gallery and roof structure. Fourteen stepped buttresses support the exterior on three sides. They end in triangular gables and were formerly decorated with stone finials. The three choir apses have polygonal ends, moulded cornices beneath the window sills, and simpler string courses at their bases.
Portals, windows, and interior furnishings
Portals and sculpture
The west and south entrances have richly profiled pointed-arch portals with pinnacles, leaf-like crockets, and finials. Their sandstone tympana, the sculpted fields above the doorways, were made toward the end of the 14th century by the unidentified Master of the Annunciation Relief. They are regarded among Austria’s major relief works of that period.
The west portal tympanum measures 120 by 70 centimetres and depicts the Annunciation. The south portal tympanum measures 160 by 100 centimetres and shows the Lamentation of Christ after the removal of his body from the cross. A fully sculpted pelican crowns the finial above the south tympanum, expressing Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection. Large pointed-arch windows pierce the south wall, while the choir openings are narrower. The otherwise relatively plain west facade has a large rose window.
Medieval glazing
The church retains 147 medieval glass panes from the 14th century, while another 25 medieval panes are held in museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The glazing was produced by a Viennese master known as the Main Master and by a local workshop. Masters B and C completed the windows of the main and side choirs. The surviving medieval glass is an exceptional part of the church’s fabric.
Altars and devotional images
The white-marble Neo-Gothic high altar was made in 1884 and 1885 by the Graz stonework firm Grein after a design by Robert Mikovics. It contains the present copy of the Ear-of-Grain Madonna, an image type showing Mary in a blue garment decorated with ears of grain. Gottfried Johannes Höfler painted the copy in 1978 after the original Marian image was stolen in 1976. The original, traditionally attributed to Saint Luke and supposedly brought by Ottokar III, was actually painted by a Styrian master around 1420 to 1430 and remains missing.
The 18.5-centimetre-high root crucifix is kept in a 19th-century reliquary outside the church interior. It was stolen in 1976 but recovered shortly afterward. Tradition says that shepherds discovered it in a tree in 1255. Another legend relates that Emperor Frederick III tried to take it to Vienna in 1441, but the transport animals stopped at the Peggau bridge. The crucifix then disappeared from the wagon and was later found again at Straßengel.
The furnishings also include two Neo-Gothic side altars, a Rococo pulpit, late Baroque Stations of the Cross, a white Thassos-marble people’s altar, and an ambo. Christa Huber-Winter and Edgar Huber redesigned the baptismal font in 2021. The High Gothic gallery occupies the western end of the church. It probably originated in 1455 as a ruler’s gallery associated with Emperor Frederick III and is reached through a profiled flat-arched portal.
Chapels and sacristy
Double chapel
The double chapel was added to the north side in 1455, probably with the support of Emperor Frederick III. Its lower room, the Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother, has a barrel vault. Above it, the Friedrichskapelle is two bays long, ends in a straight wall, and has a square cross-ribbed vault. Fragments of plant murals and partly fragmentary consecration crosses survive inside.
Annakapelle
The Annakapelle adjoins the double chapel on the east. Built around 1723, it has a rectangular plan, a three-eighths termination, an oval window, and a domed vault with a lantern. A basket-arched opening connects it with the nave. Its altar group of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child is probably by Jakob Peyer.
The chapel contains glass-protected relic particles attributed to several saints and a Holy Kinship fresco from around 1740 to 1750. The fresco is often attributed to Josef Amonte, although its style and technique point to another unidentified artist. Amonte’s oil painting from around 1752 depicts Ottokar III bringing the Marian image to Straßengel.
Sacristy
The Baroque sacristy occupies the northeastern part of the church. It has two bays, a barrel vault with lunettes, and an oratory above. Original stucco profiles, late Baroque wrought-iron window grilles, a shell-shaped marble lavabo niche, and a stucco-marble portal survive as part of its interior.
Modern organ
The organ on the gallery was built in 1995 by Pflüger Orgelbau. It has three manuals, pedals, 30 stops, a detached console, mechanical action for the keys and stops, and 1,868 pipes. Its case is made of waxed oak, and its couplers are I/II, III/II, I/P, II/P, and III/P.
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