page_title: Maria Schmolln
section_title: The Sanctuary
hierarchical_section_title: Maria Schmolln / The Sanctuary
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kath. Pfarrkirche, Wallfahrtskirche Maria-Hilf und Verbindungsgang zum Kloster &#160; This media shows the protected monument with the number 59040 in Austria. (Commons, de, Wikidata)
context_page_description: Maria Schmolln is a municipality in the district of Braunau am Inn of the Austrian state of Upper Austria state. The community is mainly known as an important pilgrimage destination among rural Innviertel. The name comes from its location on the “Schmollner Berg”, literally small mountain.
context_section_description: According to tradition, all started in 1735 when the farmer Michael Priewasser hung a picture of Saint Mary on a tree in memory of his lost son. This way passers-by would stop and be moved to pray for him. Already in 1784, due to the growing popularity of the place, a wooden chapel was built, and afterward demolished, in 1810, by the order of the authorities. As the image of Saint Virgin Mary kept being worshiped by many, in 1850 a new wooden chapel was built, as well as a shelter for the pilgrims, clearings were made so that people could start settling around the shrine, and so a village was born and continued to grow.
  On their own initiative the inhabitants then built the present-day shrine, which, together with a small Franciscan Cloister and the elementary school, was opened in 1863. In 1880 the original wooden chapel was demolished and a chapel, that can be seen today, was built at the northern side of the sanctuary.
  In 1867 Maria Schmolln became a separate parish as it came to be the most important pilgrimage site in the Innviertel.
  The shrine, built in the Romanesque revival style, is 42 meters long and 15 meters wide.
  The side chapel, where the image of St. Mary is worshiped, was built according to the plans of the artist and Franciscan abbot John Mary Reiter. A glass panel on the floor marks the location of the tree on which the image was originally fixed.
  In 1962 the rich historicist features of the interior with their polychrome decorations and paintings were removed and replaced with a white finish.
  Again, in 1992 an extensive renovation and redesign of the interior took place. The new main and side altars were designed and built by the Tyrolean sculptor Rudolf Millonig, as was the new “pilgrims fountain”, built near the side chapel in 2007.
caption: The front of the sanctuary; on the left St. Mary chapel.
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