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The Pleasant and the Useful: Pilgrimage and Tourism in Habsburg Mariazell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2009

Alison Frank
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Theidea behind this article came from a riddle. A 1907 guidebook to the Austro-Hungarian pilgrimage site of Mariazell carried the following enigmatic line: “The traveler who, while visiting Mariazell, wishes to combine the pleasant and the useful—for whom the pilgrimage should be at the same time an excursion into the mountains—will find a series of pretty promenades that lead him only a short way out of town and require absolutely no exertion.” The author most likely thought the meaning of this somewhat banal passage was completely clear. But the historian must wonder what exactly was “pleasant” and what was “useful” for the traveler to Mariazell. Was it pleasant to contemplate the majesty of God and the clemency of the Virgin Mary and useful to exercise one's body in the fresh, mountain air—even without exertion? Or was it useful to demonstrate one's piety and devotion via pilgrimage and dutiful time spent in mass, but pleasant to stroll through the temple of nature, admiring local flora and fauna along the way? Both of these interpretations are as truthful as they are possible, and their coexistence exemplifies a quintessential duality of religious tourism in the nineteenth century. Mariazell was both a “place of mercy” (Gnadenort), and an “alpine pearl”; its attraction stemmed from a hybrid of sanctity and sanctuary that was exploited by the citizens and residents of Mariazell whose livelihood depended on attracting a constant flow of outsiders.

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Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 40 , April 2009 , pp. 157 - 182
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Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2009

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References

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7 Sperber, Popular Catholicism, 71. In a striking example of the widespread acknowledgment of religious rituals' political significance, revolutionaries had infiltrated two Viennese Corpus Christi processions, substituting a prominent Jewish physician in one case and a Protestant leader of the national guard in the other, in the position traditionally held by the emperor. Bowman, Priest and Parish, 199–200.

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9 Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 20. The connection between pilgrimage and tourism supports Rudy Koshar's argument that “leisure practices have very long temporal reaches” even while they “describe important transformations over time.” Koshar, Rudy, “Seeing, Traveling, and Consuming: An Introduction,” in Histories of Leisure, ed. Koshar, Rudy (Oxford and New York, 2002), 4Google Scholar. József Böröcz's listing of “all the historical travel types” includes “the explorer and the pilgrim, the monk, the merchant, the student, the refugee, the missionary, the hermit, the water and mountain cure seeker or, on the more sinister side, the smuggler, and even the conqueror with his Golden Hordes.” Böröcz, József, “Travel-Capitalism: The Structure of Europe and the Advent of the Tourist,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 34, no. 4 (October 1992): 711–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 6.

11 Kaufman, Suzanne K., Consuming Visions: Mass Culture and the Lourdes Shrine (Ithaca, NY, 2005), 11Google Scholar.

12 Christian, Person and God, 99.

13 Bowman, Priest and Parish, 2. Contempt for pilgrimage made its way into the training of new priests. In a handbook of pastoral theology that was published in multiple editions, Franz Giftschütz, professor of pastoral theology at the University of Vienna from 1778 to 1788, suggested that priests “warn against the excessive trust that some place in pilgrimage.” Giftschütz, Franz, Leitfaden der in den k.k. Erblanden vorgeschriebenen deutschen Vorlesungen über die Pastoraltheologie, 4th ed. (Graz, 1801), 363Google Scholar. Josef Johann Pehem, who taught canon law at the University of Vienna from 1779 to 1799, agreed that pilgrimages were, in the words of William Bowman, “unnecessary accretions to Catholic religious culture.” Bowman, Priest and Parish, 121.

14 Karl Vocelka attributes a split in the historiography between defenders and opponents of Joseph II's reforms to “two fundamentally incompatible worldviews.” The Marxist historian Eduard Winter defended Joseph II's variant of reform Catholicism as positive for the church. On the other hand, Josephinian logic was “foreign” to the Jesuit historian Ferdinand Maaß. See Vocelka, Karl, Verfassung oder Konkordat? Der publizistische und politische Kampf der österreichischen Liberalen um die Religionsgesetze des Jahre 1868 (Vienna, 1978), 21Google Scholar.

15 Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 31–32. The “clear tendency of the Baroque church and of Catholic princes to regard pilgrimage as a barometer of religious orthodoxy and political loyalty” has inspired David Luebke to analyze the political symbolism of group pilgrimage in the early modern period. Luebke, David, “Naïve Monarchism and Marian Veneration in Early Modern Germany,” Past and Present 154 (February 1997):76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Peter Leisching notes that “By tying itself to old devotions, the [post-1848] Church hoped to stabilize the consciousness and churchly piety of a population stuck in a traditional mentality vis-à-vis anticlerical social processes,” and that this desire led to a “politicization of the cult of saints” in the nineteenth century. Leisching, “Die Römisch-Katholische Kirche,” 134. On Lower Austria (including Vienna), see Bowman, Priest and Parish, 215. For non-Habsburg German lands, see Sperber, 96. James Van Horn Melton sees in Maria Theresa's education reforms of the 1770s a sign of the monarchy and church's combined mission to “regulate popular culture” while directing it away from “theatrical, ritualistic, and nonliterary media,” including pilgrimage. Van Horn Melton, James, “From Image to Word: Cultural Reform and the Rise of Literate Culture in Eighteenth-Century Austria,” The Journal of Modern History 58, no. 1 (March 1986): 97–98Google Scholar.

17 This is not, however, to suggest that a trend towards secularization continued uninterrupted over the course of the nineteenth century. Karl Vocelka notes that, although Liberals would take Joseph II as their figurehead decades later, Josephinian decrees were by no means “liberal reforms.” Moreover, the Concordat reached between the Austrian crown and the Apostolic See in 1855, gave the church “a dangerously strong position, on equal footing [with the state] in the internal structure of the Habsburg monarchy, that extended far beyond its function as a linchpin of neoabsolutism.” Vocelka, Verfassung oder Konkordat?, 23, 28. Even those within the church who would not characterize their position as “dangerous” greeted the Concordat as “exceeding all expectations.” For responses to the Concordat within Austria, see Mayer, Gottfried, Österreich als katholisches Grossmacht: Ein Traum zwischen Revolution und liberaler Ära (Vienna, 1989), 207–10Google Scholar. For more on the Concordat in general, see Weinzierl, Erika, Die österreichischen Konkordate von 1855 und 1933 (Vienna, 1960)Google Scholar.

18 Kaufman, Suzanne K., “Selling Lourdes: Pilgrimage, Tourism, and the Mass-Marketing of the Sacred in Nineteenth-Century France,” in Being Elsewhere: Tourism, Consumer Culture, and Identity in Modern Europe and North America (Ann Arbor, 2001), 65Google Scholar.

19 A transition that belies the notion of the early modern period as representing a “300-year lull in shrine formation or pilgrimage activity.” Nolan and Nolan, Christian Pilgrimage, 273. This point is further demonstrated by Anna Coreth's study of Habsburg piety in the early modern period. Coreth, Anna, Pietas Austriaca, trans. Bowman, William D. and Leitgeb, Anna Maria (West Lafayette, IN, 2004)Google Scholar. Derek Beales suggests that the peak of the Catholic Reform came “as late as the mid-eighteenth century.” Beales, Derek, Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650–1815 (Cambridge, 2003), 29Google Scholar.

20 Quotation from Wonisch, P. Othmar OSB, “Die Mariazeller Ursprungslegende,” in Koren, Hanns and Kretzenbacher, Leopold, eds., Volk und Heimat: Festschrift für Viktor von Geramb (Graz, Salzburg, Vienna, 1949), 167Google Scholar.

21 The oldest extant printed sources recounting the legend of Mariazell's founding come from the year 1604 and present 1157 as an undisputed date of foundation. Wonisch, “Ursprungslegende,” 167–78.

22 Some version of this legend appears in all accounts of the history of Mariazell. For an analysis of its development and an interpretation of its potential symbolism (the monk represents St. Lambrecht's, the boulder in his path represents the obstacles facing the abbey before it can develop the land and build churches and parishes in the region), see Wonisch, “Ursprungslegende.” Wonisch further points out that the papal letter was dated St. Thomas' Day, now celebrated as the date of Magnus' arrival (Wonisch, 176, n. 9). Magnus' statue, carved out of linden wood, remains on display in the church's Gnadenaltar to this day.

23 Beales, Prosperity and Plunder, 29.

24 Vladislaus III Henry served briefly as duke of Bohemia (from June until December 1197) before abdicating in favor of his older brother, Přemysl Otakar, and accepting the margravate of Moravia in exchange. His wife often appears as Agnes or Kunegunde in popular histories of Mariazell.

25 Both Maria Theresa and her father, Charles VI, made pilgrimages to Mariazell in an attempt to influence their (and their spouses') fertility through prayer. On the perceived link between piety and reproduction, see Beales, Derek, Joseph II: In the Shadow of Maria Theresa, 1741–1780 (Cambridge, 1987), 21Google Scholar.

26 According to William Bowman, these “wild barbarians,” also commonly called “Turks,” were most likely Bulgarian Muslims. William Bowman, “The State, Popular Religion, and Political Power: Pilgrimages and Religious Practices at Mariazell, Austria,” paper given at the German Studies Association Conference, San Diego, CA, 6 October 2007.

27 In his admirable attempt to investigate the historical accuracy of all three legends, Helmut Eberhart calls into question both the nature of the church expansion ordered by Louis and also the true origin of several of the donated objects attributed to him. Eberhart, , “Geschichte und Bedeutung Mariazells als Wallfahrtsort,” in Mariazell und Ungarn: 650 Jahre religiöse Gemeinsamkeit, vol. 30 of Veröffentlichungen des Steiermärkischen Landesarchivs (Graz, 2003), 30–35Google Scholar.

28 Bowman, “The State, Popular Religion, and Political Power.” Details of all three of the foundational miracles can be found in Wonisch, Othmar, Mariazell, 2nd ed. (Munich and Zürich: Schnell and Steiner, 1980), 3–4Google Scholar, and Bussard, Paul, Our Lady of Mariazell (St. Paul, MN, 1958), 19–21Google Scholar. The enduring significance of pilgrimage in times of war became a prominent theme during the First World War. Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl held a speech in Mariazell on 1 April 1916, in which he noted that all of the monarchy's rulers had “begged in difficult times of war the generalissima, the highest warrior-queen to invoke victory and peace for the threatened empire before her holy son.” “Ansprache Sr. Eminenz des Kardinals Gustav Piffl in Maria-Zell,” 1 April 1916. Stiftsarchiv St. Lambrecht (SAStL), Karton: Nachläße.

29 Volker Press credits Ferdinand II with tightly interweaving imperial politics with religiosity, setting a precedent of Habsburg pilgrimage to Mariazell specifically, but also, more broadly of the dynasty's Catholic piety. Press, Volker, “The Habsburg Court as Center of the Imperial Government,” The Journal of Modern History 58, Supplement: Politics and Society in the Holy Roman Empire, 1500–1806 (December 1986): 540Google Scholar.

30 Waid, Immaculata, Mariazell und das Zellertal aus Geschichte und Chronik (St. Pölten, 1982), 63Google Scholar. According to Marian Sterz, the indulgence was granted in 1400, not 1399. Sterz, Marian, Grundriß einer Geschichte der Entstehung und Vergrößerung der Kirche und des Ortes Maria-Zell (Vienna, 1819)Google Scholar.

31 Waid, Mariazell, 110.

32 1689 and 1692: Hüttl, Ludwig, Marianische Wallfahrten im süddeutsch-österreichischen Raum: Analysen von der Reformations- bis zur Aufklärungsepoche (Vienna, Cologne, 1985), 48Google Scholar. Early 18th c.: Rögl, Maria-Zell, 29. Here, as elsewhere in the text, the number of visiting pilgrims is estimated by the number of communion wafers distributed—an admittedly imperfect indicator of traffic.

33 1725: Hüttl, 48; 1757 communion wafers: Sterz, Grundriß, 84. This was, of course, a “logistical masterpiece of the first order,” in the words of an anonymous reviewer of this article. Its implications for the town of Mariazell are discussed below. The practice of bivouacking in the woods, although common among pilgrims in the early modern period, was not restored after the Josephinist period. Some towns near pilgrimage sites set up mass accommodations on straw beds. Schroubek, Georg R., “Die Mährer-Wallfahrt nach Maria Dreieichen,” in Wallfahrten in Niederösterreich (Altenburg, [1985]), 55Google Scholar.

34 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 31, citing P. Gabriel Schmiedbauer, “Cat. relig. perant. monast. ad S. Lamb.” (Graz, 1902).

35 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 33–34, again citing Schmiedbauer. This is only a partial summary of some of the many holdings and properties listed in the inventory taken in the 1780s.

36 A total of 738 cloisters, which Erika Weinzierl estimates to have been about one-third of those existing in the monarchy in 1770, fell victim to Josephinian secularization. A resolution dated 29 November 1781 provides unusual insight into Joseph II's logic: “the longstanding proof that these orders are absolutely useless to others and cannot please God, prompts me to charge the cabinet to have provincial commissars mark all male and female religious orders throughout the Erbländer that do not run a school or care for the sick or otherwise excel in studies, and take over their income and assets, as they have the Jesuits'.” Weinzierl, Erika, “Säkularisation und Säkularisierung,” in Kirche und Staat in Idee und Geschichte des Abendlandes. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Ferdinand Maass SJ, ed. by Baum, Wilhelm (Vienna & Munich, 1973), 334Google Scholar. Derek Beales estimates that there were “barely 2,000 [monastic] houses” in the monarchy in the 1780s. Beales, Prosperity and Plunder, 180.

37 Waid, Mariazell, 11.

38 Joseph II visited in 1761, 1764, 1766, 1767, and 1786, the year St. Lambrecht's was suppressed(!). Hüttl, 161, citing Coreth, Pietas Austriaca (1959). See also Peter Wiesflecker, “Die Habsburger und Mariazell,” in Mariazell und Ungarn, 41–53.

39 Three processions from Vienna were among those spared. Hollerweger, Hans, Die Reform des Gottesdienstes zur Zeit des Josephinismus in Österreich (Regensburg, 1976), 81Google Scholar; Waid, Mariazell, 129. Indeed, the empress also oversaw an attempt to impose significant reforms on the various religious orders, leading Eduard Winter to conclude, “The Josephinist tendency was therefore completely developed by 1772.” Der Josefinismus und seine Geschichte: Beiträge zur Geistesgeschichte Österreichs 1740–1848 (Brno, Munich, Vienna, 1943), 153. For more on the “reforms of the seventies,” see also Beales, Joseph II. vol. 1:450–55. In the infamous “political testament” that she drafted in the 1750s and intended for her son and heir to read after her death, Maria Theresa strove to strike a balance between ensuring the continued prosperity of the clergy and promoting “what is useful to the public.” On the difference between her likely commitment to monastic reform and Joseph's, see Beales, Prosperity and Plunder, 183–86. Nevertheless, Beales, too, concludes that the period of so-called Josephinist reforms “was well underway when she [i.e., Maria Theresa] died.” Beales, Prosperity and Plunder, 179.

40 There was no single “ban” on pilgrimage, but rather a series of resolutions, circulars, and decrees that outlawed various groups of processions and pilgrimages at various times of year, from various points of origin, and to various destinations—some of them appearing merely to reiterate previous bans. For example, a decree of 11 April 1782 forbad all processions abroad; a decree dated 30 August 1783 forbad all domestic processions involving an overnight stay and all processions to Mariazell; and a 21 March 1784 circular noted that all processions and pilgrimages in the absence of a priest were forbidden. Giftschütz, Leitfaden, 361–62. Following a 1783 inquiry from the Moravian-Silesian Filialkommission, Abbot Franz Stephan Rautenstrauch (of the Benedictine monastery Braunau) recommended that the emperor ban all processions to Mariazell because they took a fortnight, during which time “häusliche Arbeit” would be neglected. Hollerweger, Reform des Gottesdienstes, 105–06, 135. The Filialkommission, subordinate to the “geistliche Hofkommission,” was in charge of preparing new plans and reforms in spiritual matters. “Actenstücke zur Geschichte des österreichischen römisch-katholischen Kirchenwesens unter K. Leopold II (1790),” in Archiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichts-Quellen 3, no. 1 (1850): 95. The difference between feierliche and stille processions was that the former were accompanied by one or more priests, and the bells were rung, and people proceeded to church as a group. Rögl, Maria-Zell, 133. According to the former archivist of St. Lambrecht's (a prolific historian of Mariazell), orders were given on 1 June 1789 to press charges against any arriving processions, confiscate their crosses and banners, and give the carriers fifty blows with a cane. To date, I have not been able to find either the original order or other mentions of it. Wonisch, Othmar, Mariazeller Wallfahrtsbücher, vol. 1, Geschichte von Mariazell (Mariazell, 1947), 64Google Scholar.

41 Hollerweger, Reform des Gottesdienstes, 194.

42 Sterz, Grundriß, 86, 87.

43 Waid, Mariazell, 129. For a similar story, see Blumauer-Montenave, Liselotte, Zur Geschichte des Wallfahrtsortes Mariazell: Fremdenverkehr und Wallfahrt (Vienna, 1987), 20Google Scholar. Both authors rely heavily on the work of the prolific archivist of St. Lambrecht's and lecturer in theology at the University of Graz, Othmar Wonisch (1884–1961).

44 Winter, Der Josefinismus, 128, 131. According to his biographer, Derek Beales, “it is impossible to doubt the genuineness of [Joseph's] religious fervour—which he clearly conceives to be a true Catholic's.” Beales, Joseph II, vol. 1:454.

45 Cole, “The Counter-Reformation's Last Stand,” 287.

46 On cameralism in Austria more generally, see Brusatti, Alois, “Die Entwicklung der Wirtschaftswissenschaften und der Wirtschaftsgeschichte,” in Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918, vol. 1, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, ed. Brusatti, Alois (Vienna, 1973), 605–08Google Scholar. According to Eduard Winter, Joseph II, as a physiocrat, “saw that the state's only source of wealth came from the skillful cultivation of land”—a project that would be threatened by the extended absence of peasant farmers from the land they worked. Winter, Der Josephinismus, 153. Karl Vocelka sees a direct connection between “the enlightened monarch's practical, national economic motives” and restrictions on “the excrescences of Baroque piety: excessive holidays, pilgrimage, processions, confraternities, and pomp in church festivals and customs.” Vocelka, Verfassung oder Konkordat?, 22.

47 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 206.

48 Hofrat Heinke in his “Rechenschaftsbericht,” Ferdinand Maaß, Der Josephinismus. Quellen zur seiner Geschichte in Österreich, 1760–1850, vol. 3 (Fontes Rerum Austriacarum 73), no. 10/13, 360.

49 The state began measuring annual visits to important spas and sanatoria in 1876. The annual number of guests staying in Viennese hotels was not recorded before 1874. Tremel, Ferdinand, “Der Binnenhandel und seine Organisation. Der Fremdenverkehr,” in Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918, vol. 1, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, ed. Brusatti, Alois (Vienna, 1973), 395, 400Google Scholar. Jill Steward dates the “major expansion of tourism” in Austria to the 1880s, but notes, “Austria's link with the modern tourist industry began with the International Exhibition of 1873 staged in Vienna.” After its founding in 1896, the railway ministry supported the development of tourism by disseminating information in travel bureaus in Vienna, Innsbruck, and Graz. Steward, Jill, “Tourism in Late Imperial Austria: The Development of Tourist Cultures and Their Associated Images of Place,” in Being Elsewhere: Tourism, Consumer Culture, and Identity in Modern Europe and North America (Ann Arbor, 2001), 109, 110, 115Google Scholar.

50 “Statuten des Wiener Maria-Zeller-Prozessions-Vereines” (1861), Karton: Prozessionen, SAStL. The journey from Vienna to Mariazell is described in detail in Nowohrácky, Heinrich Adalbert, ed., Jubiläums-Festblühten zur frommen Erinnerung an den Gnadenort Maria-Zell im Jahre des Heiles 1857 (Vienna and Graz, 1857), 9–34Google Scholar.

51 “Programm der Gratzer Wallfahrt nacht Maria Zell im Jahre 1857” and “Programm der Grazer Wallfahrt nach Maria Zell im Jahre des Heils 1862,” in Karton “Mariazell: Div. Bilder u. Kleinschriften, Gebetszettel, Fotos, Plakate, Flugzettel,” SAStL.

52 “Wallfahrer 1864,” Karton: Mariazell: Prozessionen. SAStL.

53 Steward, “Tourism in Late Imperial Austria,” 113.

54 Sperber, Popular Catholicism, 18.

55 Heinke's Vortrag of 14 August 1790, as cited in Hollerweger, Reform des Gottesdienstes, 227.

56 Sterz, Grundriß, 183–85. These numbers had barely changed in 1848, when there were 108 houses, of which 44 had a liquor license.

57 Ibid., 185–86. “Österreich” was often used to refer locally to the province “Niederösterreich,” or Lower Austria. Waid, Mariazell, 125.

58 The preface concludes with an admonition to pilgrims: “Liebe Marianische Wallfahrer! Ziehet in Gottes Namen aus und habet Acht, daß ihr auch ein gutes Zeugniß bei denen bewahret, welche, wie der Apostel sagt, draußen sind (1. Timoth. 3, 7), d.h. nicht unseres Glaubens sind, damit sie nicht Böses wider euch sagen können.” Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 7–9. Nowohrácky's summons to the pilgrim whose duty (in addition to honoring Mary and being devout) was to defend the institution of pilgrimage with flawless, irreproachable behavior, was echoed half a century later in a prayer book advising, “one should always bear in mind that the pilgrimage path is a path of penitence, not a pleasure journey.” Lieder-Kranz und Gebetbuch zum Gebrauche der Wallfahrer nach Maria-Zell, 7th ed. (Graz, 1903), 6.

59 Götten, Josef, Christoph Moufang, Theologe und Politiker, 1817–1890. Eine biographische Darstellung (Mainz, 1969), 98Google Scholar.

60 “Mariazell im Jahre 1805,” undated manuscript written in the first person, unlabeled carton [Mariazell], SAStL.

61 Judson, Pieter, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge, MA and London, 2006), 157Google Scholar.

62 On St. Lambrecht's remaining properties, Waid writes, “was übrig blieb – die Pfarreralm mit etwas Wald, der Hausgarten, die kleine zusammengeschrumpfte Landwirtschaft – ist im Vergleich zum Verlorenen kaum nennenswert, wirklich nur ein kläglicher Rest.” Waid, Mariazell, 133. It is interesting to note that it took the more conservative Francis II/I, who came to the throne in 1792, four years to begin the process of reintroducing pilgrimage and a full ten years to reinstate St. Lambrecht's. The emperor had to overcome, among other obstacles, resistance from the archbishop of Vienna and the majority of members of the Lower Austrian diet, who considered the pilgrimages to Mariazell to be an illegal exception to the general ban. The first pilgrims from Vienna to Mariazell were allowed to make the journey from 11 to 18 August 1796. Although initially only special pilgrimages from Vienna were allowed, pilgrimages from other towns were openly planned and even announced in newspapers, leading to general confusion about the validity of the ban. Hollerweger, Reform des Gottesdienstes, 342, 345, 372. On the reintroduction of pilgrimage from Vienna to Mariazell in 1796: Rechenschafts-Bericht der Vereinsleitung des Wiener Mariazeller-Processions-Vereines für das Vereinsjahr 1896 (Vienna, 1897), 26. Adam Bunnell notes, “Francis, himself a pious man, was in no hurry to have the religious orders back, nor did he wish to restore their lands and riches, which had gone to support a growing bureaucracy and education and hospital systems.” Bunnell, Before Infallibility, 43.

63 Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 129.

64 1814: 92,500; 1815: 86,100; 1816: 98,800; 1817: 110,300; 1818: 116,800. Sterz, Grundriß, 223.

65 In the cholera year 1831, for example, only 154 processions were made to Mariazell. Prozessionen Protokol 1831–1844, unlabeled carton [Mariazell], SAStL. In 1834, Superior P. Christoph Stingl was reprimanded (and threatened with removal) by the monastery administration in St. Lambrecht for denying “the necessary spiritual assistance” to pilgrims out of a misplaced “frugality”—an indication either of Stingl's Josephinist leanings or continued hardship for the parish. Letter from Stifts Administration St. Lambrecht, ex offo, to P. Christoph Stingl, Superior zu Maria Zell, 2 April 1834, No. 72. Karton: Mariazell: Kirche. SAStL. The 1827 fire, which destroyed 75 out of 98 buildings, inspired fundraising efforts across the monarchy, including a benefit concert in distant Innsbruck. “Verzeichniss der Musik-Stücke,” Karton: Mariazell: Div. Bilder u. Kleinschriften, Gebetszettel, Fotos, Plakate, Flugzettel, SAStL.

66 Christian, Person and God, 44, 181.

67 Mariazell lies 118.9 km or 14 imperial miles from Graz and 139.1 km or 18 imperial miles from Vienna. At 862 meters above sea level, Mariazell lies between 295 and 300 Klafter above Vienna, but substantially below the peaks of the surrounding mountains, which reach heights of up to 2,227 m. Rögl, Maria-Zell, 222; Waid, Mariazell, 23, 24; Sterz, Grundriß, 182.

68 Nolan and Nolan, Christian Pilgrimage, 43.

69 Steward, “Tourism in Late Imperial Austria,” 113.

70 Sterz, Grundriß, 192–97, 223.

71 Werner, Zacharias, “Topographische Curiositäten,” in Balsaminen, by E. J. Veith (Regensburg, 1837), 109–10Google Scholar (first published in Vienna in 1823).

72 Schama, Landscape and Memory, 495.

73 Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 65–70.

74 Ursprung und geschichtliche Darstellung des weltberühmten Gnaden- und Wallfahrtsortes Maria-Zell (Maria-Zell, [1857, 1860, 1868]). Those recommended excursions included trips to lakes and waterfalls, both staples of romantic excursions into nature. The Erlauf-See and the Lassingfall were perhaps set apart by the large artificial lake (Stausee) created to ensure that the electric power plant at Wienerbruck could run for one month without any rainfall at all. Hartl, Wilhelm, Illustrierter Führer auf der Niederösterr.-steirischen Alpenbahn Mariazeller Bahn (Vienna, 1926), 4Google Scholar.

75 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 220–23.

76 Macher, Mathias, Der berühmte Wallfahrt-Ort Maria Zell in Steiermark historisch topographisch dargestellt nach seinem Wiederaufbaue aus den Brandruinen vom Jahre 1827 nebst einer treuen Schilderung seiner merkwürdigsten Umgebungen (Vienna, 1832), iiiGoogle Scholar.

77 Waid, Mariazell, 167.

78 Although frequent visits from archdukes and archduchesses ensured that the Habsburg family would continue to be represented at Mariazell, Francis Joseph allowed over half a century to elapse before returning to Mariazell for a second visit in 1910. Even Joseph II had visited more often.

79 Documenting the exact number of pilgrims is not possible. The most readily available proxy is the number of consecrated wafers, or hosts (Hostien) distributed. This number is available sporadically in the nineteenth century. From 1816 to 1819, 2,341 processions arrived with 1,159,000 pilgrims, for an average of 173 processions and 82,000 pilgrims per year. (Notation by Othmar Wonisch, Karteikatalog SAStL). Lourdes and Trier: Blackbourn, Marpingen, 38–40. Mariazell: Waid, Mariazell, 168. Some allowance must be made for the fact that Austria was at war (with Prussia) in the summer of 1866.

80 Rögl calculates an average of 80,000 pilgrims for the period 1857–1900, Rögl, Maria-Zell, 50. The average number of communicants recorded in Mariazell between 1839 to 1894 was 74,330 pilgrims a year. “Kommunikanten in Mariazell, 1839–1894,” Karton: “Prozessionen,” SAStL. Suzanne Kaufman estimates that Lourdes drew between 150 thousand and 300 thousand pilgrims annually in the early twentieth century, with the exception of the anniversary year 1908, in which one million pilgrims gathered for a jubilee celebration. Kaufman, Consuming Visions, 26, 212n15.

81 Statuten des Verschönerungs-Vereins Maria-Zell, SAStL, Nachläße (NL).

82 Laurence Cole has noted that Tirol was “an innovative region in the tourist branch” that smoothly transitioned from a world in which “the lodging of travelers and hospitality were once linked to a religious conception of the fulfillment of duty and neighborly love” to one in which “tourism was a business that was intimately connected with capitalist society.” Cole, Laurence, “Für Gott, Kaiser und Vaterland”: Nationale Identität der deutschsprachigen Bevölkerung Tirols 1860–1914 (Frankfurt, 2000), 381Google Scholar.

83 Several of these photographs are reproduced in Schweighofer, Andreas, Schweighofer, Thomas, Leitner, Ernst, and Grießl, Josef, eds., Ranti Putanti, s' Leben is hanti: Mariazeller Erinnerungen, Bilder aus vergangenen Tagen, vol. 1, 1864 bis 1938 (Mariazell, 2002)Google Scholar. The population of Mariazell rose from 1,151 residents in 134 houses in 1869 to 1,984 residents in 188 houses in 1910 (in 1981 the town had only 1,926 residents). Blumauer-Montenave, “Tabelle 1: Häuser und Einwohner 1390 bis 1981,” in Zur Geschichte des Wallfahrtsortes Mariazell, 27.

84 Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 64, 77, 101.

85 Rosegger, Peter, Als ich noch der Waldbauernbub war: Geschichten aus der Heimat, paperback edition (Munich, 1996), 99Google Scholar. Originally published in three volumes, 1899–1902.

86 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 71.

87 The forward to Rögl's 1907 account ends: “Möge das Buch im Interesse von Maria-Zell und zum Vorteile der neuen Bahn von Erfolg begleitet sein.” Rögl, Maria-Zell, viii. It was also in 1907 that Pius X elevated the church in Mariazell to the status of a basilica, granted a plenary indulgence to pilgrims to Mariazell and also issued the encyclical “Pascendi Dominici Gregis,” the “high point of his battle against the teachings of modernism.” Engel-Janosi, Friedrich, Österreich und der Vatikan, 1846–1918, vol. 2, Die Pontifikate Pius' X. und Benedikts XV (1903–1918) (Graz, 1960), 88Google Scholar; “Dekret der Erhebung der Kirche in Mariazell zu einer Basilika” 27 November 1907, Karton: “Diverse Archivalien,” SAStL.

88 Lewis, Gavin, “The Peasantry, Rural Change and Conservative Agrarianism: Lower Austria at the Turn of the Century,” Past and Present 81 (November 1978): 128CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 Johann, Archduke of Austria, Der Brandhofer und seine Hausfrau, 3rd. ed., rev., with an introduction by Walter Koschatzky (Graz, 1982), 64Google Scholar. Johann completed the autobiographical story by 1850, but it was not published until 1930, 71 years after his death.

90 Sterz, Grundriß, 189.

91 Deborah Coen has connected the phenomenon of the Sommerfrische—which drew “Austria's liberal Bildungsbürgertum” from the city (Vienna) for a sojourn in the countryside to a new “admiration for the ‘inner nobility’ of the alpine peasants.” She cites a poem by Hugo von Hofmannsthal in which he extols “Who do not watch for the mysterious / Blue beauty of this water / Nor its fragrance and grace / But for the meager / Growth of their scrawny crops / For the fruit of the small garden / For food to live on.” Coen, Deborah, Vienna in the Age of Uncertainty: Science, Liberalism, and Private Life (Chicago, 2007), 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a discussion of stereotyping of mountain peoples in southeastern Europe, see Kaser, Karl, “Peoples of the Mountains, Peoples of the Plains: Space and Ethnographic Representation,” in Creating the Other: Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe, ed. Wingfield, Nancy (New York, 2003), 216–30Google Scholar.

92 Posch, Andreas, “Erzherzog Johanns kirchlich-religiöse Einstellung,” in Erzherzog Johann und die Steiermark: Elf Vorträge zum Steierischen Gedenkjahr, ed. Tremel, Ferdinand (Graz, 1959), 26Google Scholar. Johann first visited Mariazell in 1796 at the age of 14.

93 Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 61, 99.

94 P. Abel S. J. und die Wiener Männerfahrten nach Mariazell (Vienna, 1907), 15, as cited in Wonisch, Othmar, ed., Mariazell 4, no. 7 (1917): 157Google Scholar.

95 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 17. Of course, they also wished to stake a claim to local natural resources: “Salz und Eisen aus dem Mariazeller Bereich waren für das Mutterkloster Ansporn, die Erschließung dieses entlegenen Siedlungsraumes voranzutreiben.” P. Benedikt Plank, OSB, “St. Lambrecht und Mariazell,” in Eberhart, Helmut and Fell, Heidelinde, eds., Schatz und Schicksal: Steirische Landesausstellung 1996. Mariazell and Neuberg an der Mürz, 4. Mai bis 27 Oktober (Graz, 1996), 15Google Scholar.

96 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 152. By the 1850s, Archduke Johann, the Habsburgs' staunchest Alpinist, looked back with nostalgia on the days before city influence made itself felt in the region: “Es herrschte alte Treue, alte Sitte, Wohlhabenheit, und wie überall, wo Eintracht, Rechtschaffenheit und Einfachheit herrschen, ächter Frohsinn … noch waren nicht fremde Sitte, nicht städtisches Wesen, nicht Luxus, nicht das Verderbniß über die Pötschen herübergewandert, denn jenseits hatte sich noch nicht das bunte Treiben der Hauptstadt eingebürgert.” Archduke Johann, Der Brandhofer, 60.

97 “Eine Blitzwallfahrt nach Maria Zell” (Lambach, 17 May 1907), newspaper clippings (the title of the newspaper is unfortunately not included), with marginalia in Othmar Wonisch's hand. SAStL, unlabeled carton.

98 The article went on to complain: “Viel beklagenswerter und trauriger aber ist noch, daß heute noch unter den Augen der christlichen Geschäftswelt der Großteil der Erzeugung und Handel von Wallfahrtswaren, Christ- und Firmungsgeschenke usw. die Juden in Händen haben und mit diesen Artikeln die besten Geschäfte machen.” “Die Verjudung von Mariazell,” Reichspost no. 31 (20 January 1914). For an argument that “seaside and spatown anti-Semitism” developed independently from anti-Semitic political parties both because it was “deeply anchored in [German] society” and tied to “sociocultural developments that were tightly bound to the social function of the journey to a spa before the emergence of modern mass tourism,” see Bajohr, Frank, “Unser Hotel ist judenfrei”: Bäder-Antisemitismus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 2003), 21–37Google Scholar.

99 “Die Touristen haben ihre Hochtouren, wir ‘gmoana Leut’ unsere Wallfahrten. Sind sie es zufrieden, wir auch.” “Eine Blitzwallfahrt nach Maria Zell” (17 May 1907), unlabeled newspaper clipping, Karton: Nachläße, SAStL.

100 A similar advertisement appeared in Entstehung von Mariazell nebst kurzer Beschreibung der Gnaden-Basilika (Mariazell, [1914–1920]): “Sehenswert! Panorama in Mariazell. Erste Abteilung. Ursprung und Entwicklung des Gnadenortes vom Jahre 1157 bis auf heute, in prachtvollen Lichtbildern. Zweite Abteilung. Kinematographische Vorführungen religiösen Inhaltes. Wechselndes Programm. Im selben Gebäude befindet sich auch das photographische Atelier J. Kuß.”

101 Sterz, Grundriß, 185. In 1907, the town's population had increased from 820 residents in 98 houses to 1,180 residents in 124 houses. Reiterer, Karl, Illustrierter Führer durch Steiermark (Aussee, 1907), 20Google Scholar. Georg Göth was commissioned by Archduke Johann of Austria to survey the population and natural resources of Styria. His report (Bezirks-Summarium) on Mariazell claims it had 844 residents, of whom 468 were female. “Bezirks-Summarium vom Jahre 1837.” Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Göth Georg Nachlaß, K. 34 H. 697. Multiple pilgrimage schedules can be found in SAStL, Karton: “Mariazell: Div. Bilder u. Kleinschriften, Gebetszettel, Fotos, Plakate, Flugzettel.”

102 “Reisegelegenheit in Obersteiermark,” Mittheilungen des Österreichischen Alpen-Vereines (Vienna, 1864), 465.

103 Der fromme Pilger nach dem Gnadenorte Maria-Zell in Steiermark. Ein Gebets- und Wallfahrtsbuch (Vienna, 1908), 17. According to the Verein's annual statements of accounts, an average of between 1,000 and 1,300 pilgrims took part in its annual pilgrimage to Mariazell. Rechenschafts-Bericht der Vereinsleitung des Wiener Mariazeller-Processions-Vereines für das Vereinsjahr 1896 (Vienna, 1897), … für das Vereinsjahr 1899 (Vienna, 1900), … für das Vereinsjahr 1900 (Vienna, 1901).

104 The difference in altitude between the railroad station in St. Pölten and that in Mariazell is 575.8 meters. The highest point reached by the railroad between those two stations is at the Gösingtunnel. Hartl, Illustrierter Führer, 3, 58. Once the railroad opened in the spring of 1907, it became possible to travel from Vienna to Mariazell and back in one day, with a three- to four-hour stay in the pilgrimage town itself. Mitteilungen des deutschen und österreichischen Alpenvereins 8 (30 April 1907), 101.

105 The schedule for a pilgrimage from St. Pölten to Mariazell shows pilgrims meeting at the local cathedral at 9:00 a.m., leaving for the train station at 10:00 a.m., and arriving Mariazell at 4:00 in the afternoon. They returned to St. Pölten at 4:30 the following afternoon, for a total commitment of 33.5 hours. “Wallfahrtsordnung,” Karton: “Mariazell: Div. Bilder u. Kleinschriften, Gebetszettel, Fotos, Plakate, Flugzettel,” SAStL.

106 “Eine Blitzwallfahrt nach Maria Zell,” Lambach, 17 May 1907, newspaper clipping, Karton: Nachlässe, SAStL.

107 Othmar Wonisch, “Das Marianische Land,” unpublished typescript, Karton: Nachlässe, SAStL.

108 “Sie [those who constructed the railroad] haben sich mit diesem hervorragenden Werke moderner Technik ein bleibendes Denkmal geschaffen.” Rögl, Maria-Zell, 189. The section on daily excursions offers a list of “prächtige Ausflüge mit der Bahn.” Rögl, Maria-Zell, 213.

109 Wonisch, “Mariazeller Ursprungslegende,” 172.

110 Francis Joseph's visit to Mariazell was motivated not only by the holy sanctuary and the railway, but also by a statue of the emperor erected by the naturalized Austrian industrialist, Arthur Krupp, who had invited the emperor to attend its dedication. Waid, Mariazell, 172–73.

111 Nearly one hundred years later, nature enthusiasts Nicholas and Nina Shoumatoff admired the “Lourdes-type shrine of Mariazell, on whose surrounding slopes ‘everyone in Vienna’ is supposed to have learned to ski.” Nicholas, and Shoumatoff, Nina, The Alps: Europe's Mountain Heart (Ann Arbor, MI, 2001), 31Google Scholar.

112 Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 6.

113 Ibid., 171.

114 Christian, Person and God, 49.

115 Nolan and Nolan, Christian Pilgrimage, 22.

116 “The Great Mother of Austria, Great Protectress of the Hungarians, and the Mother of the Slavic Peoples.” Bowman, “The State, Popular Religion, and Political Power.”

117 One recent study of pilgrimage in Austria contains descriptions of well over 100 pilgrimage sites, organized by province (Bundesland). The only pilgrimage site not listed under one of Austria's nine provinces is Mariazell, which, instead of being classified under Styria, has its own section, entitled “Die Via Sacra.” Plechl, Pia Maria, Wallfahrt in Österreich (Vienna, 1988)Google Scholar.

118 Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 3.

119 Stadler, Franz, “Maria-Zell,” Kremser Zeitung 46 (15 November 1913)Google Scholar.

120 Nowohrácky, Jubiläums-Festblühten, 56.

121 Sterz, Grundriß, 220–21.

122 On Slovaks: Rögl, Maria-Zell, 135. Quotation: Turner & Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 13.

123 Rosegger, Als ich noch der Waldbauernbub war, 97, 98–99. Rosegger's childhood impression is confirmed by contemporary reports that, in the 1857 jubilee year, 27,000 pilgrims arrived from Hungary on 8 September alone—9,000 of them from Preßburg/Bratislava-Prešporok/Pozsony (Coreth, Pietas Austriaca, 68). Rosegger, though celebrating the simple piety of his childhood, was considered to be critical of the Catholic Church, in particular after he donated funds for the construction of a Protestant church in Mürzzuschlag. Rossbacher, Karlheinz, Heimatkunstbewegung und Heimatroman. Zu einer Literatursoziologie der Jahrhundertwende (Stuttgart, 1975), 86Google Scholar.

124 Rögl, Maria-Zell, 132.

125 Ibid., 146.

126 Waid, Mariazell, 170. Leisching identifies Abel's organization as part of a group of religious clubs and events that demonstrated a “tactical demonstration of the expansion of anti-liberal and anti-socialist power.” Leisching, “Die Römisch-Katholische Kirche,” 194.

127 Boyer, John, Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897–1918 (Chicago, 1995), 166, 215Google Scholar.

128 Indeed, the increasing popularity of Marian pilgrimage and the growth in the number of Marian pilgrimage sites itself created new competition for Mariazell in the nineteenth century. Popular pilgrimage sites in Cisleithania would include the following: in Moravia: Velehrad, Berg Hostein/Hostýn, Turas/Tuřany, St. Thomas in Alt-Brünn, Slaup/Sloup, Wranau/Vranov, Sitzgraz/Cizkrajov, Žaroschitz/Žarošice, Običtau/Obyčtov, and Přibyslawitz/ Přibyslawice; in Bohemia: Přibram/Příbram. Albendorf/Vambeřice/Wambierzyce, Maria Kulm/Chlum Svaté Maří/Chlum nad Ohří, Altbunzlau/Stará Boleslav, Hrádek, Maria Sorg, Maria Stock/Skoky, Tuřan/Tuřany, and Makow/Makov; in Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia, and Istria: Maria Luschari/Svéti Višarje/Monte di San Lussari, Bresiach/Brezje, Groß Kahlenberg/Šmarna gora, Maria Saal, Maria Grün, and Maria Schnee; in Vienna and Lower Austria: Klosterneuburg, Maria Stiegen, Maria von Pötsch, Maria Treu, Maria Taferl; in Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tirol, and Vorarlberg: Maria Eich, Maria Plain, Trens, and Rankweil; in Galicia: Podkamień/Pidkamiń, Kochawina/Kochavyna, and Milatyn; in Lemberg/Lwów/L'viv: Kalwarya Pacławska, and Leżajsk. Among the most significant pilgrimage sites in Central Europe was the Black Madonna of Częstochowa in Upper Silesia. Leisching, “Die Römisch-Katholische Kirche,” 135–36.

129 “Die Processionen welche im Jahre 1914 in der Zeit vom 1. Mai bis 1. Juni in der Basilika kirchlich eingezogen sind,” and “Processionen [sic] 1863, 1ten Concurs,” Karton: “Prozessionen,” SAStL. Calculations are based only on the month of May, in order to rule out any effect of the tensions associated with World War I. I grouped together processions listed as “slov.,” “böhm. slov.,” “mähr. slov.,” “ung. slov.,” and “croat.” as “Slavic-speaking,” and processions listed as “öst.,” “d. böhm.,” “d. ung.,” “d. mähr.,” and “stey.” as German-speaking. It is revealing that the recordkeeper used a combination of linguistic and regional designations that cannot possibly be accurately transposed onto national groups. “Stey.”, for example, can include both German- and Slovenian-speaking Styrians. I have left out of these calculations the very large (20 percent) group of pilgrims labeled simply as “mähr.” or “böhm.” without the prefix “d.” or “slov.” Clearly the thought pattern of the cleric categorizing the pilgrims who arrived in Mariazell does not complement a nationality based historical analysis.

130 If further proof is needed, it can also be noted that the decrease in visits to Mariazell dated from the beginning of the nineteenth century, long before nationalist conflict became so vociferously proclaimed by interested political parties.

131 Blackbourn, Marpingen, 4–5, 14–21; on Kevelaer, see Sperber, Popular Catholicism, 64–65.

132 Bowman, “The State, Popular Religion, and Political Power.”

133 Sperber, Popular Catholicism, 65–66; Christian, Person and God, 49.

134 Coreth, Pietas Austriaca, 69.

135 Boyer, Culture and Political Crisis, 166.

136 Baedeker, K., The Eastern Alps Including the Bavarian Highlands, the Tyrol, Salzkammergut, Styria, and Carinthia, 4th ed. (Leipzig, 1879), 315Google Scholar.

137 Baedeker, K., The Eastern Alps Including the Bavarian Highlands, Tirol, Salzburg, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, 9th ed. (Leipzig, 1899), 443Google Scholar. The 1888 (6th) edition retains the 200,000 estimate.

138 Instead, it supports Laurence Cole's contention that the Christian Social movement's “adaptation to modern economic demands occurred in disjunction to cultural acclimatization to modernity.” Cole, “The Counter-Reformation's Last Stand,” 310.

139 Among other problems with setting up Lourdes as a normative standard, to do so disregards the particular context within which Lourdes achieved its special status—a context that could not be reproduced elsewhere at will. As Ruth Harris has argued, “large-scale pilgrimage to Lourdes emerged in response to these shattering events [the Second Empire's collapse following the Franco-Prussian war] and was shaped by the Paris-based Assumptionist Order as part of an overall campaign aimed at nothing less than restoring the Bourbon monarchy, releasing the Pope from his ‘Vatican prison,’ and re-establishing the alliance between throne and altar.” Harris, Ruth, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age (New York, 1999), 211Google Scholar.