Kramsach, Mariatal, Pfarrkirche hl. Dominikus

Mariathal stands at the entrance to the Brandenberger Tal in Tirol. The Roman Catholic parish and pilgrimage church is dedicated to Saint Dominic and belongs to the Archdiocese of Salzburg. In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI raised it to the rank of a minor basilica. The church building and its adjoining cemetery are protected monuments. The site began with a knight who accidentally killed his brother while hunting and later found a painted image of the sorrowing Mother of God in a tree. A monastery was built at that spot and the image is still honoured in the chapel of grace. The church was founded in 1267 by the brothers Friedrich and Chunrad von Freundsberg as a family burial place. After a fire in the late 17th century it was rebuilt in Baroque style, using the old Gothic walls. Inside, gold and black dominate the decoration, a requirement of the Dominican nuns who took charge in the 15th century. The six-storey tower has a bulbous dome and Gothic lower walls marked 1488. The three-aisled nave is vaulted in ribbed Gothic style, while the sacristy and side chapels show later Baroque stucco work dated 1739. An organ built in 1736 by Johann Christoph Egedacher remains partly intact, though its mechanism has been renewed.