Mariä Empfängnis, Romanesque filial church in Landau an der Isar, Germany.
Mariä Empfängnis is the Catholic village church of Zulling, a district of Landau an der Isar. The small single-nave church has three bays, an east chancel and a four-storey late Gothic gabled tower on the west side, whose upper floors are divided by pointed-arch panels with light slits and sound openings. A small portal porch stands on the south side of the nave, the sacristy on the south side of the chancel; the two-light pointed-arch windows hold tracery.
Construction of the church was completed in the second half of the 15th century, with 1478 inscribed on the chancel arch marking this period. The completion date reveals that the building took shape during a time of active church construction across the region.
The name Mariä Empfängnis means the Immaculate Conception of Mary, whose feast is celebrated on 8 December. The late Gothic winged high altar holds a life-size figure of the Mother of God flanked by four female saints on a golden background, with scenes from Mary's life painted on the wings.
The church stands in the village centre of Zulling, a district of Landau an der Isar, with the Teufelstritt in the grass behind it on the north side. The nave is entered through a small porch on the south side of the western bay; the sacristy adjoins the south side of the chancel. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is kept on 8 December.
Behind the church on its north side lie two grass-free footprints in the lawn, known as the Teufelstritt von Zulling or Frevlertritt von Zulling. A medieval legend tells of wealthy knights whose richly furnished church on the Isar was robbed; the thief leapt from the north window with the loot and was struck dead by lightning, and no grass has grown in the footprints since.
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