Pfarr- und Wallfahrtskirche Maria Bild

The Roman Catholic parish and pilgrimage church of Maria Bild stands in the small village of Maria Bild, part of the municipality of Weichselbaum in Burgenland’s Jennersdorf district. It is dedicated to the Feast of the Visitation of Mary and belongs to the Jennersdorf deanery. The church’s history began in 1676 in the Hungarian town of Máriapócs when a local painter’s image of the Virgin showed unexplained tears. The original picture soon travelled to St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. In the same period the Cistercians of Heiligenkreuz Abbey took charge of pastoral care in the Raab valley and founded St Gotthard Abbey in what is now Hungary.

A copy of the famous image was brought to Weichselbaum in 1749 by Father Gerhard Hauer. He hung it on a tree where workers and farmers began to pray before it. According to legend, a woodcutter kept returning the picture to the valley, only for it to reappear on the hillside. A small chapel was built to protect the image, which soon drew many pilgrims and even new settlers. Emperor Joseph II ordered Heiligenkreuz Abbey to build more churches in the Raab valley, leading to the foundation of the German-speaking parish of Maria Bild am Weichselbaum in 1787. The present church was consecrated in 1793, its tower renovated in 1900 and interior restored in 1940. War damage in 1945 was repaired, and the building underwent major refurbishments in 1974 and 2013.

Inside, the single-aisled church has a three-bay nave with segmental barrel vaults supported by double pilasters. The half-round apse houses the high altar assembled in 1958 from 18th- and 19th-century parts, its mensa adorned with late-baroque coats of arms. The pulpit dates from the late 18th century, and above the sacristy door hangs a modern painting of the Visitation framed by an 18th-century acanthus surround. The organ, built in 1905 by Gebrüder Rieger with ten stops, stands on the three-bay, vaulted west gallery. Outside, the southern façade rises to a slender spire, marking the spot where pilgrims have gathered for centuries.