Little is known about the early settlement of Maria Taferl. The
Celtic Kingdom of Noricum was located on the northern shore of the Danube. During Roman times, the Danube served as the border of the
Province of
Noricum. Even today in the church plaza, there is a stone of Celtic origin, on which heathen sacrifices were made. This attests to Maria Taferl's long tradition as a place of religious activity. Maria Taferl and the surrounding countryside belonged to the territory of the
Ostarrichi during the time of the
Bambergs in the
Middle Ages. It then became part of the
Habsburg holdings. For a long time, it was part of the land of the Lords of Weißenberg, whose seat lay in the nearby town of
Münichreith. It is assumed that the various districts of the town were already established during the Middle Ages. The history of the modern market of Maria Taferl begins in the 17th century. The first church was built around a shrine to the
Holy Mother, which is the origin of the name "Maria Taferl." The legends say that the statue of the
Pietà at the shrine was an offering from Alexander Schinagel, a forester, who had a miraculous recovery from a serious illness. It replaced a crucifix there, which had also been the site of a miracle, for when local shepherd Thomas Pachmann tried to chop down the oak on which it was placed, he gravely injured both his legs. After a prayer to the Virgin Mary, his almost fatal wounds stopped bleeding. The old oak was destroyed by fire in 1755, which also damaged the statue. The church building was built from 1660 to 1710. Its construction was begun under the imperial architect
Georg Gerstenbrand and the Italian
Carlo Lurago. Its famous
cupola was built by
Jakob Prandtauer from 1708 to 1710. He also designed the current appearance of
Melk Abbey. The Maria Taferl church is built in the
baroque style with ample amounts of
gold leaf and a
frescoed ceiling. In the center of the high altar is the namesake Marian stature. The building's rear houses its
crypt. According to an inscription in the building's interior, the building of the church gave the local inhabitants new courage after the
Plague, the
Turkish Wars, and the
Thirty Years' War had all taken their toll. It also supported the ideas of the
Counter-Reformation in the heartland of the Catholic House of Habsburg. All this speaks to Maria Taferl as an important manifestation of the Catholic faith on the main traveling route of the Danube. There are many traditional stories of angelic processions here, which come from the 17th century. The tradition of pilgrimage to Maria Taferl also dates back to that time. In 1760 alone, there were 700 pilgrimage processions and over 19,000
masses said there. The church is also a kind of information treasure chest about its pilgrims, their origins, and their number. Within it are the gifts of the pilgrims, who came on account of illness and were cured. Another reason for Maria Taferl's importance as a pilgrimage destination was the stone cross, a gift from the citizens of
Freistadt for pilgrims who died on the journey. It is also evidence of the exhausting nature of pilgrimage in those days. The murdered
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his family lived in the nearby
Artstetten Castle and is known to have regularly attended mass at Maria Taferl. Maria Taferl became a
Basilica minor in 1947. By 2010, the basilica's interior should have undergone a complete restoration. It will then celebrate a double jubilee: 350 years since the laying of its cornerstone in 1660, and 300 years since its completion in 1710. The interior's last restoration was around 50 ago; the exterior was restored in 1982, and in 1998, the domes of the two towers were re-covered. Besides the basilica, in Maria Taferl there is also a monument for the Fallen of both World Wars. These men are honored annually at meeting of veteran's groups. There is a folk belief that the water from the well at Maria Taferl can help with eye complaints. Other landmarks in the town are the Elementary School Museum, as well as the mechanical nativity, which tells the story of Maria Taferl's origins. Maria Taferl - Kirche (3).JPG|East view of the basilica Maria Taferl - Kirche, Hochaltar.JPG|High altar of the basilica Maria Taferl - Hochaltar 4 Jesaia.jpg|Statue of Isaiah on the high altar Schinnagel.jpg|Pachmann and Schinagel depicted in the basilica ==Municipal divisions==