Our Lady of the Snows

The chapel was consecrated on the Feast of the Snows, August 6, 1911. The First World War and the events of the post-war period were not particularly beneficial to the church. Alpine summer tourism, as in the times of the monarchy, only slowly picked up again, the pasture itself was divided by the border, and fortifications and barracks were built on the now Italian side. The intended definition of the state border was abandoned solely for the sake of the small church, in order to keep the chapel on Austrian territory.The owner of the Hotel Oisternig, the Feistritz merchant Anton Achatz, now set about repairing the chapel. The altar stone was destroyed, the interior devastated. Achatz had the chapel renovated and furnished, and also bought a small bell. On August 1, 1926, the adaptation work was completed and the chapel could be consecrated by the Tainach provost Dr. Martin Ehrlich.

The small chapel stands alone on a wide alpine meadow high on the ridge of the Carnic Alps. When the church was built, the heavily guarded border ran further south, deep down in the valley. Meanwhile, the Italian border runs directly over the ridge, but fortunately you can now get by without a border post and all hikers can easily visit both countries.

The patronage of "Our Lady of the Snows" – which, in my experience, is not all that common – indicates that this chapel was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but not, as is usually the case, associated with one of her classic feast days (e.g., the Name of Mary, the Nativity, the Assumption, or as Queen of the Rosary). Rather, the search for the origin of "Our Lady of the Snows" leads us far back in church history, to the fourth or fifth century, and geographically from here across the Alps to the Italian capital. On August 5, 363, at the site where the magnificent church of Santa Maria Maggiore stands today (Pope Francis was buried here a few months ago), the so-called "Miracle of the Snows" occurred. That is, on that day, in the middle of summer, there was snow there in the morning because Our Lady wanted a church dedicated to her built on that spot. She expressed this wish in a nighttime vision to a wealthy couple who financed the construction and to the Bishop of Rome, Pope Liberius. The Roman church has the status of a patriarchal basilica (papal basilica), and it is the origin of all churches and chapels bearing this patronage. In the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, the date of August 5, the day of the church's consecration (in the year 432 by Pope Sixtus III), is not a mandatory commemoration.