St. Bartholomew's Church, Berchtesgaden — pilgrimage site
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St. Bartholomew's Church, Berchtesgaden

St. Bartholomä

  • 2 min read
  • 47.545° N 12.973° E

Interesting facts

  • In 1688 a boat carrying pilgrims across the Königssee capsized, and some 60 to 70 people drowned in the cold lake.
  • On 29 January 2006 the Königssee froze so hard that about 60,000 people walked across the ice to the church.
  • The first chapel was consecrated in 1134 by Bishop Roman I of Gurk under the name Basilica Chunigesee.
  • The neighbouring inn grew out of a 14th-century house of the prince-provosts' fish master, later turned into a hunting lodge.
  • The church's two onion-domed towers are not identical, a detail easy to miss in the many photographs taken from the boat.
  • After Ludwig II paid for its restoration, the church was reconsecrated on 25 July 1868.
  • Prince Regent Luitpold covered half the cost of a further major renovation carried out between 1902 and 1904.
  • The church gained papal indulgence rights in 1522, which strengthened its draw as a pilgrimage destination.
  • The Archenkanzel viewpoint, reached by mountain trail, looks straight down on the church from 743 metres above the lake.

Why it is worth it

St. Bartholomä is a small pilgrimage church on the small Hirschau peninsula, halfway along the western shore of the Königssee in the Berchtesgaden Alps. Its red onion domes set against dark water and the huge east face of the Watzmann behind make it one of the classic images of the Bavarian Alps. There are no roads here: the lake is hemmed in by sheer rock walls, and the church can be reached only by boat or over the mountains.

A first chapel was consecrated on St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1134, possibly because of a holy spring nearby, and received a relic of the saint. It was pulled down in 1697–1698 and rebuilt on the old foundations as a domed church whose trefoil plan, with three apses, echoes Salzburg Cathedral; in the 1730s the prince-provost of Berchtesgaden gave church and lodge their present Baroque form. The interior has stucco by the Salzburg artist Joseph Schmidt, and the three apse altars are dedicated to St Bartholomew, patron of alpine farmers and dairymaids, St Catherine and St James. When the church became dilapidated in the 19th century, King Ludwig II paid for its restoration from his own purse. Next to it stands the former hunting lodge of the prince-provosts, later a favourite of the Wittelsbach kings and today an inn.

Every year on the Saturday after 24 August, St. Bartholomä is the goal of the Almer Wallfahrt, often described as the oldest high-mountain pilgrimage in Europe: up to three thousand pilgrims walk from Maria Alm in Austria across the Steinernes Meer plateau and descend to the lake, a custom traced to around 1635 and thanks for surviving the plague. The boat trip itself is part of the ritual for day visitors, too; at the rock walls a musician plays the flugelhorn so that the famous echo answers several times. When the last boat has left in the afternoon, the peninsula falls quiet.

Getting there

Electric passenger boats run all year from Seelände at Königssee village in Schönau am Königssee, just south of Berchtesgaden, to St. Bartholomä. On foot it is a demanding mountain hike of about four to five hours over the Kührointalm and the Archenkanzel viewpoint. The nearest airport is Salzburg Airport (SZG), about 28 km away in a straight line; Bad Reichenhall is the nearest larger German town, about 22 km away, and Munich Airport (MUC) is about 126 km away.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Bavaria 22The Most Beautiful Places in Germany 87The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Germany 14The Most Beautiful Pilgrimage Sites 23The Most Mystical Sacred Places 49The Most Mystical Places 138The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

St. Bartholomew's is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church in the Berchtesgadener Land district of Bavaria in Germany. It is named after Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, patron of alpine farmers and dairymen. The church is located at the western shore of the Königssee lake, on the Hirschau peninsula. It can be reached only by ship or after a long hike across the surrounding mountains. A first chapel at the lake was built in 1134 by the Provosts of Berchtesgaden. In 1697, it was rebuilt in a Baroque style with a floor plan modeled on Salzburg Cathedral, two onion domes and a red domed roof. The church features stucco work by the Salzburg artist Joseph Schmidt and a three-apse choir. The altars in the apses are consecrated to Saint Bartholomew, Saint Catherine, and Saint James respectively.

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47.54472, 12.97250per Wikidata