Wallfahrtskirche Maria Seesal Ybbsitz, Pilgrimage church in Ybbsitz, Austria.
Wallfahrtskirche Maria Seesal is a late-historicist hall church on a wooded hill above the Schwarzen Ois valley in the Schwarzois settlement of Ybbsitz. Its east end carries a twin-tower facade with pointed pyramid helms, built for long-distance views, and a straight-ended choir between the towers with a neo-baroque gable. Inside is a single nave of three bays under a barrel vault with transverse arches, plus a narrow one-bay choir.
In 1863 Helene Wochner dreamed of a church with a Marian image and later found that image in a mill; she set it on a hillside, where a wooden chapel was built. In 1872 a Ybbsitz blacksmith donated a small stone neo-baroque chapel about halfway up the present church. Wochner's descendants revived the pilgrimage, built a large inn and had the present church erected above the earlier chapel in 1904–1906 by master mason Josef Hummer of Waidhofen an der Ybbs. After the founding family's financial collapse, the k. u. k. Blindeninstitut took over the site in 1910 as a holiday facility for blind children.
The pilgrimage began with Helene Wochner, who in 1863 dreamed of a church with a Marian image and later found that image in a mill. Her descendants revived the devotion, built a large guesthouse and funded the present church. Retired priests looked after the church from 1899 to 1933.
The location is remote and accessed via smaller roads that take more time to drive than typical routes. It is wise to check weather conditions before visiting, as the hilltop position means temperature and conditions can shift quickly.
The high altar is a Baroque columned retable from 1740, formerly a side altar of the Sonntagberg basilica, moved here and fitted with a Rococo tabernacle from Mariazell. It frames an embroidered image of the Virgin Mary.
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