churches - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2016 - 68 Euro Cent

A literally "wonderful" place in front of the magnificent mountain scenery of the Mieminger chain - this is Maria Locherboden, a neo-Gothic pilgrimage church and a popular destination in Tyrol near the towns of Mötz and Stams. Beyond the country's borders, the pilgrimage site became famous through two miraculous events. On the one hand, one tells the story of a squire named Thaman Kluibenschädl, who was possibly trapped in 1740 in the local tunnel and could be rescued. Maria Locherboden became really famous after the healing of the seriously ill Maria Kalb from Innsbruck. The young woman had already been given the death sacrament in 1871, when she was said to have appeared to the Mother of God and to have told her: "You must seek me in the Oberland and pray the rosary to my seven pains!" She was brought to Mötz by her brother and carried to the grotto, where she prayed and called St. Mary. After that she suddenly felt strong and cured and went back independently to Mötz. Maria Kalb is said to have lived until 1925. Now the number of pilgrims grew steadily, and the chapel of mercy at the entrance to the lodge was built. At the end of the 19th century, on the hill above the Chapel of Grace, a Neo-gothic pilgrimage church was built to meet the onslaught of pilgrims. The master builder was Heinrich Hörmann. In 1901 the church was solemnly inaugurated, the celebration is said to have been accompanied by strange light phenomena. Since the 1870s there are also Stations of the Cross on the way from Mötz to Locherboden. Today the church of Maria Locherboden entices with an altarpiece by the Tyrolean carver Josef Bachlechner, with a new organ and a modern chapel for night-time rides. On the walls and in the vault one finds ornamental and figurative painting on the themes of Easter, Christmas, Corpus Christi and Pentecost, numerous Mötzer citizens were portrayed here. Noteworthy are the colorful glass windows. To this day, Maria Locherboden is regarded as a place of hope for help, because many pilgrims take seriously what is written on a banner in the church: "This is the place where you have to look for me".