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Austria’s “Stille Nacht” Chapel
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The Josef Mohr Window
The world’s most famous Christmas song, “Silent Night,” was brought to life near Salzburg by two music-loving Austrians. Two stained-glass windows in the Stille-Nacht-Kapelle in Oberndorf bei Salzburg honor the carol’s creators. According to the inscription seen at the bottom right of the Mohr window pictured here, it was donated to the chapel by the Ostmärkischer Sängerbund (choir) of Vienna in 1935. The top half of the window shows “Vikar Josef Mohr” gazing upward, quill in hand. In the lower half we see an image of the now-demolished parish church (Pfarrkirche) in which Mohr’s lyrics were first sung in 1818. - Next to the photograph below you will find the full text of the window’s inscription with an English translation. (Also see a larger view.)
SEE ENGLISH
TRANSLATION BELOW.
“Vikar Josef Mohr schuf hier den Text des Liedes.
Stille Nacht / heilige Nacht
Oberndorf
Hier stand die alte Pfarrkirche in welcher das Lied 1818 das erstemal zur Christmette gesungen wurde.
Stifter: Ostmärkischer Sängerbund, Wien 1935.”
Line-by-line English translation (of window text):
“Here curate Josef Mohr created the text of the song.
Silent Night / Holy Night
Oberndorf
Here stood the former parish church in which the song was sung for the first time during Christmas mass in 1818.
Donor: Ostmärkischer Sängerbund (choir), Vienna 1935.”
Larger view of the window
Window History
Both the Mohr window pictured above and the Franz Gruber window (not pictured here) were fabricated in Innsbruck by the Tyrolean Stained Glass Institute (Tiroler Glasmalereianstalt). The Gruber window was donated by the Wiener Schubertbund, or Schubert Association of Vienna, also in 1935.
The Silent Night Chapel itself was designed by architect Josef Dietzinger. Construction spanned some 13 years between groundbreaking ceremonies in 1924 and formal dedication in 1937. The chapel’s foundation was completed in 1928, the stained-glass windows donated and installed in 1935, the altar in 1936. The finished chapel was dedicated on August 15, 1937. Each year about 150,000 people from all over the world visit the Stille-Nacht-Kapelle in Oberndorf.
SOURCE: Manfred M.K. Fischer, Director, Silent Night and Local Heritage Museum, Oberndorf b. Salzburg.
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Related Pages - Silent Night & Christmas
This Site
- “Silent Night” - The story behind the carol
- Barbarazweig - The legend and the Christmas custom.
- Christmas - The first part of our German Christmas feature
- Christmas Links - Our links list is so large, it has a page of its own!
- Christmas Music CDs
- More Christmas Links
The Web
- Stille-Nacht-Gesellschaft - The Silent Night Society (in English and German)
- Silent Night and Local Heritage Museum - Oberndorf
This Web site—in German—and the museum are located in Oberndorf, Austria, the home of the "Silent Night" (“Stille Nacht”) carol. Features some information not available anywhere else about the world's most famous Christmas carol and interesting links from the museum and the Silent Night Association. - More links on this page: Silent Night 2
NEXT > Photo: “Silent Night” window
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