The Catholic pilgrimage church of St. Pankraz stands on the so-called Pankrazfelsen in Karlstein near Bad Reichenhall. It is looked after by the Catholic town church of Bad Reichenhall, which was founded in July 2012, and is dedicated to St. Pankratius consecrated. In the vernacular and on most of the signposts it is simply called Pankrazkirche.
The church is registered as an architectural monument in the Bavarian list of monuments and - besides Gruttenstein Castle - one of two “landscape-defining architectural monuments” in Bad Reichenhall.
The church stands 145 meters above the valley floor on the Pankrazfelsen, which is in front of the Karlstein castle ruins. It can be reached from the north from Schmalschlägerstraße via a path with 264 steps.
On the north flank of the rock, directly below today's church, there were numerous dwellings from the Bronze and Urnfield Ages, which are part of the prehistoric settlement areas of Karlstein. On the Haiderburgstein, which rises northeast of the church of St. Pankraz, dwellings from the Bronze and Urnfield Ages could also be detected. Presumably the area of today's church was also settled at this time. However, since the area was built over in the Middle Ages, there is no archaeological evidence. There was also a cemetery from the Urnfield period between the church and Haiderburgstein.