Chapel of Grace (Gnadenkapelle) Altötting

The reason for Altötting's worldwide fame as a place of pilgrimage to Mary lies in an incident from the 15th century. The following miracle is said to have occurred there in 1489: A three-year-old boy fell into the Mörnbach, was carried along by the current and was thought to have drowned. The desperate mother brought the lifeless child to the chapel consecrated to the Mother of God after he was rescued and placed it on the altar. There she began to pray with other believers for the salvation of her child. After a short time, life returned to the body of the apparently dead child. Legend has it that the rescued boy was later ordained a priest.

The Chapel of Grace in Altötting with the "Black Madonna" is considered a rural national shrine and is one of the most visited pilgrimage destinations in Germany.

In the 14th century, the high early Gothic image of a standing Virgin, possibly made in Burgundy or on the Upper Rhine, carved out of linden wood, came to Altötting, the most important figure of Mary in Southern Germany. With the advent of the pilgrimage numerous replicas were made, such as in Nuremberg and Würzburg.
The Madonna statue is 64 centimeters high and contains incorporated silver plates. Neither the place of origin, nor the exact time of origin could be determined by art historians so far beyond doubt. Presumably, the figure was made at the end of the 13th or early 14th century. With her black hands and blackened face, the Madonna is said to refer to role models in Auvergne. There were such religious wooden sculptures from the High Middle Ages spread, the school of Clermont-Ferrand should have been a groundbreaking workshop. In total, there are 272 "black Madonnas" in Europe alone, and in France, where there are 188 such statues, they are known as Vierges Noires. There are famous black Marian figures except in Altötting in Einsiedeln (Switzerland), Loreto (Italy) and Czestochowa (Poland) and Montserrat (Spain).