Hello From Austria: A Country Drive And How Determination And Willpower Can Move Mountains (I)
Finally, after the rather rainy day yesterday I opened my curtains to an absolutely gorgeous day today. The lush green Alpine foothills and mountains surrounding Weiz were competing with the brilliant blue sky to catch my attention and naturally I had to get out on the road and explore. I started with a visit to the large pilgrimage church in my home town of Weiz. It is assumed that a church, more specifically a Roman basilica, was located on the hill above Weiz already around the middle of the 11th century. Due to poor lighting conditions inside the church, this building was remodeled several times, until in the mid 1700s a decision was finally made to replace the church with a new building. Construction on the new baroque style church began in 1757 and was finally completed in 1776.
The Weizbergkirche is a very imposing house of worship and was a well-known pilgrimage church, as early as the 12th century. It became a very popular pilgrimage destination in the 17th century, but since then the number of pilgrims has dropped substantially. It is the largest church in the...