Buildings and monuments
Clear, iron-rich streams flow through meadow valleys and rocky gorges and the mighty backdrop of the Alps visible from the heights, deep forests alternating with pastures and farmland, churches, castles, pretty villages and towns greeting the country from afar complete the picture, which is cheerful and contemplative in its basic character.
In rural areas, value is still placed on religious culture. Lovingly renovated parish churches and pilgrimage chapels invite you to draw energy from these places of power.
Typical for rural areas are the many smaller and larger chapels. They are often tended by a village community. Especially in May, the chapels are visited for May devotions.
The stories of their origins reach deep into the folk faith. There were plenty of reasons for dedicating a wayside cross, wayside shrine, tree image, cross pillar or chapel:
Survival after the plague or its extinction, memories of wars, the Hussite War, the Swedish invasion, the French Wars, the Prussian War, the First and Second World Wars, the sudden death of a person, but also the lucky salvation of whole families or individuals.
Crosses, chapels, shrines or pictures on houses were and are companions on the way and contemplative places. They are familiar signals in the landscape during petitions and Corpus Christi processions.
(Source: Heimatkundliche Beiträge aus dem Bezirk Rohrbach, 2nd issue, summer 2004).
Chapels were also built near healing spring water, such as the Heiligwasser Chapel in Lichtenau/St.Oswald near Haslach.
Service & Contact
Bohemian Forest Information OfficeDreisesselbergstraße 18/1
4160 Aigen-Schlägl
Phone +43 507263 200
E-Mail info@muehlviertel.at
Web www.boehmerwald.at/
