Maria Schnee Kapelle | Ehrwalder Alm

This gem (similar to the Plague Chapel) stands on the Ehrwalder Alm below the mountain station of the Ehrwalder Almbahn cable car or on the way to the Ehrwalder Alm. The patron saint's day is the commemoration of the consecration of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (5 August), popularly known as "Maria Schnee", because the legend tells of the church being built in Rome: According to the legend, the Madonna appeared to the Roman merchant John and his wife on the night of 5 August and promised that their wish for a son would be fulfilled if a church was built in her honour on the spot where there was snow the next morning. The couple then went to Liberius, who had the same dream. On the morning of 5 August, the highest point of the Esquiline hill was white with snow. That is why this church still bears the patrocinium Santa Maria ad Nives (German: Maria Schnee). The basilica is the largest of Rome's more than 40 Marian churches, which is why it is called Maria Maggiore. (Source: wikipedia) On the Ehrwalder Alm, the chapel actually stands in winter in the middle of the deep snow-covered alpine pasture and the skiing area of the Ehrwalder Alm, which is popular with the numerous skiers. In the chapel, there are death portraits of deceased persons who had a special connection to the Ehrwalder Alm or the Ehrwalder Almbahn.