Silent Night Chapel
Stille-Nacht-Kapelle47°57′ N 12°56′ E
Make the trip to Oberndorf if Silent Night is the reason you came at Christmas, ideally for the 17:00 commemoration on 24 December. Oberndorf sits about 20 kilometres north of Salzburg, so plan it as a half-day trip.
Photo Holger Uwe Schmitt · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 and others, credited in the gallery
On the evening of 24 December 1818 the assistant priest Joseph Mohr and the teacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber sang Silent Night for the first time in the church of St Nikola, with Mohr playing guitar. Floods from the Salzach damaged the church and it was demolished. The octagonal memorial chapel on its site was finished in 1937.
Every 24 December at 17:00 a commemoration takes place in front of the chapel, without a break since 1953, and the carol is sung in many languages. The Silent Night Museum in the old parish house next door tells the song's story over two floors. In Advent a special post office in Oberndorf stamps Christmas mail with its own postmark.
Worth knowing
- Combine the chapel with the Silent Night Museum next door, which covers the song's history over two floors.
- On Advent weekends the Stille-Nacht-Historienspiele start with a scene in front of the chapel and carry on across the river in Laufen in Bavaria.
Quick answers about Silent Night Chapel
When is the Silent Night commemoration in Oberndorf?
Every year on 24 December at 17:00, in front of the Silent Night Chapel. It has run every year since 1953.