Wallfahrtskirche Maria Ponsee

The Maria Ponsee pilgrimage church originated from a chapel in the 12th century and was mentioned in a document in 1329 as a Marian shrine. Around 1420 it was extended into a three-bay side aisle with a ribbed vault. The unique, impressive defense tower is probably made of Roman quarry stones. Between 1716 and 1726, the church was enlarged and baroqueized according to plans by Jacob Prandtauer. The early Baroque extension in the north dates from this period as a counterpart to the Gothic side aisle. At the same time, a hunting lodge was built as a summer residence for the priests of Herzogenburg Abbey, which was later converted into a vicarage. The high altar does not have an altarpiece, but a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary, which was washed up by the Danube flood in 1720. The parish of Ponsee experienced its first heyday as a pilgrimage church in the 18th century. It was renamed Maria Ponsee in 1950, when the pilgrimages that had fallen into oblivion were solemnly resumed.