Pfarrkirche

The Catholic parish church of St Mary stands in Maria Alm am Steinernen Meer, a village in the Salzburg Alps beside the Steinernes Meer range. The church serves as the parish church and was once an important pilgrimage site. Both the church and its surrounding cemetery are protected as historic monuments. The church’s history begins with a small building first recorded in 1374. In 1429 Pope Martin V granted an indulgence to fund a new church, and later the lords of the Alm expanded it. A painted wooden image of the Virgin, said to protect against bears, became a focus of devotion and was moved into the church around 1600. Pilgrims came in growing numbers, especially seeking protection from cattle disease, storms and eye ailments. The church is a broad three-aisled hall with a single-chancel east end and a tall west tower rising 84 metres. Inside, the nave has a barrel-vaulted ceiling over three bays, and the two-bay choir ends in a five-sided apse. The high altar of 1753 holds a late-15th-century statue of the Virgin and Child flanked by saints. The organ, built in 1868 and restored in 2021–22, stands in the west gallery. The walled cemetery surrounds the church, and the tower’s painted panels and heraldic shields can be seen from outside.