St. Martin Church and Salmdorf Pietà

Salmdorf is a village that is more than 1000 years old and the "precursor municipality" of Haar. Known for the Salmdorfer Pieta, one of the oldest depictions of the Lamentation of Christ.

Of the church building first mentioned in 1315, the Romanesque basement of the tower with its round-arched blind arcades is all that remains. The approximately 25 m high tower received its bell story with a pyramid roof in 1816. It was incorporated into the new late Gothic building constructed around 1490, which consists of a nave with a gable roof and a small choir. The Salmdorf Pieta stands in the Church of the Assumption of Mary. This important work of art, which was restored a few years ago, was created around 1340. Since its creation, the Salmdorf Pietà has been colored (painted) several times to reflect changing contemporary tastes. During the restoration from 1933 to 1936, alterations from the Baroque period (plaster filling on the body of Jesus, mask on the face of Mary) were removed. During the most recent restoration (1994-2003), the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation focused primarily on the reconstruction of the church. limited to a comprehensive examination and conservation. Exposing the medieval version was impossible because it is almost completely missing from the outer sides of Mary's cloak. Thus, viewers see the Salmdorf Pietà in a 19th-century version, which was deliberately left unfinished.