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.

History

In Carolingian times there was a royal palace here, and nearby King Carloman founded a Benedictine monastery in 876, with Werinolf as its first abbot and a church dedicated to St Philip; in 907 Louis the Child gave it to Bishop Burchard of Passau, and in 910 the Hungarians sacked and burned it. In 1228 Duke Louis I of Bavaria rebuilt the buildings and placed them in the care of twelve canons regular under a provost, who stayed until the secularisation of 1803. For 500 years Altötting has drawn Catholic pilgrims in honour of Mary, and Saint Conrad of Parzham served for 40 years as porter at the friary of St Ann here (Wikipedia, Altötting).

What you'll find

• 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.

Things to know

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.