Felsenkapelle Gschlößtal

The Felsenkapelle stands in the Gschlöß valley north of Matrei in East Tyrol, about 1,690 metres above sea level. It lies beside the Gschlößbach stream on the path between the Innergschlöß and Außergschlöß alpine settlements. The hamlet of Tauer and the Matreier Tauernhaus lie roughly three kilometres further east along the valley. The chapel belongs to the Tauer section of Matrei and is protected as a listed monument. The chapel began in 1688 when local farmers built a small sanctuary without permission. Church authorities in Salzburg opposed the project and criticised the valley’s farming families for their way of life. Yet once the building was nearly finished and drew strong local support, permission was granted. Avalanches destroyed the first chapel twice before it was moved in 1870 into a large rock where a natural cave became the sanctuary’s stone vault. Today the chapel’s exterior shows a stone tower fronting the rock, with a pointed arch door, two pointed windows and a round window above. Inside, the vaulted ceiling follows the shape of the cave, its walls plastered and floor laid with stone slabs. A wooden altar with marble inlay and gilding stands in the raised apse, holding a shell niche and a wooden standing cross from the late 19th century. An iron poor-box, an 18th-century painting of Saint Michael and an alabaster figure of the Virgin under a crucifix complete the furnishings.