Altötting

The Gnadenkapelle at the centre of the square is an octagon whose core dates from around the eighth century, holding a small dark wooden figure of the Virgin from about 1300. After healings were reported in 1489 it became the chief Marian pilgrimage site in Bavaria and remains so, drawing around a million visitors a year. The outer walls of the chapel are hung with thousands of painted votive tablets left by pilgrims over centuries, each recording an illness, accident or escape. Silver urns in the chapel hold the hearts of Bavarian rulers, a practice followed from the seventeenth century into the twentieth.

What you actually see

• The votive tablets - thousands of painted panels covering the chapel walls.
• The Black Madonna - a small dark figure of about 1300 in the octagon.
• The heart urns - silver vessels holding the hearts of Bavarian rulers.
• The pilgrim square - a large open space surrounded by churches.

When to go

April to October; pilgrimage numbers peak in the warm months and on Marian feasts. The chapel is small and queues form. Processions occupy the square regularly.

Honest expectations

This is an active devotional site, not a museum, and behaviour is expected to match. The chapel is very small and crowded. The town has little else.

Nearby

Burghausen lies east; the Inn valley runs south.