Wallfahrtskirche Maria Hilf in Amberg, Catholic pilgrimage church on Mariahilfberg, Amberg, Germany

Wallfahrtskirche Maria Hilf in Amberg is a Baroque church with a long single-nave hall and a recessed choir whose walls display fine stucco work and large frescoes showing religious scenes. The interior features the typical appointments of a well-appointed pilgrimage church with rich sculptural and painted decoration.

The pilgrimage began in 1633/34, when Amberg suffered plague during the Thirty Years' War and the city vowed annual pilgrimages in thanks for deliverance. The Jesuit rector Caspar Hell donated a copy of Lucas Cranach the Elder's Mariahilf image, hung on 3 September 1634 in the tower of the old castle on the 529-metre hill. A votive chapel built in 1641 soon proved too small; after a fire that spared the image, rebuilding ended with its consecration in 1651.

The pilgrimage site grew from local devotion to Mary that deepened over generations. Visitors can observe pilgrims coming to pray at the altar today, and on feast days crowds gather on the steps and in the forecourt.

The church stands on the 529-metre Mariahilfberg, above the town of Amberg; pilgrims traditionally walk up from the town on footpaths and the access road. The annual Bergfestwoche around the Feast of the Visitation (2 July) draws thousands of pilgrims, so paths and the forecourt are crowded then. The site is cared for by five Polish Franciscans from Kraków, who have lived in the adjoining convent since 1 September 2007.

The 529-metre Mariahilfberg takes its name from the pilgrimage itself: the hill was renamed after the Mariahilf image that P. Caspar Hell, rector of the Jesuit college, donated in 1634. That image is a copy of Lucas Cranach the Elder's Mariahilf in Innsbruck Cathedral, and it survived the chapel fire that destroyed the first round building.