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The carol
The carol was first performed on this site on 24 December 1818
The chapel stands on the site of the former Nikolauskirche, where on 24 December 1818 the Christmas carol Silent Night was performed for the first time. It is a monument to the carol, its lyricist Joseph Mohr and its composer Franz Xaver Gruber.
The floods
Floods damaged the old church, and it was demolished in 1913
The Nikolauskirche was damaged several times in the 1890s by flooding of the Salzach river, especially by the 1899 flood. A new church was built in 1906, the old one was demolished in 1913, and only a debris cone marked where the song was first performed.
The chapel
The memorial chapel begun in 1924 was completed on 15 August 1937
The 100th anniversary of the song in December 1918 fell right after World War I. Many citizens of Oberndorf wanted to honor the message of peace created by Mohr and Gruber. Construction began in 1924, and the chapel was completed on 15 August 1937, the Feast of the Assumption.
The design
The chapel is an octagon with a bell helmet and a lantern
The chapel is an octagon in form with a bell helmet and a lantern, and the portal has a hipped roof canopy. The arched windows were created in 1935. The high altar has a relief of the Nativity by the sculptor Hermann Hutter, from 1915.
Copies
A full-size replica stands in Frankenmuth, Michigan
Replica models of the chapel exist in the Mini Mundus leisure park at Klagenfurt in Carinthia and the model park Mönichkirchen in Lower Austria. There is also a 1:1 scale replica in Frankenmuth in the U.S. state of Michigan.
Day 3, morning
Next is Alter Markt.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Silent Night Chapel, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.