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| Maria Saal | |
| Coat of arms | Location |
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| Administration | |
| Country |  Austria |
|---|---|
| State | Carinthia |
| District | Klagenfurt-Land |
| Mayor | Richard Brachmaier (SPÖ) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 34.81 km² (13.4 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 505 m (1657 ft) |
| Population | 3,903 (30/08/2008) |
| - Density | 112 /km² (290 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Postal code | 9063 |
| Area code | 04223 |
| Website | www.mariasaal.at |
Maria Saal (Slovene: Gospa Sveta) is a market town in the district of Klagenfurt-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is located in the east of the Zollfeld plain (Slovene: Gospovetsko polje), the wide valley of the Glan river. The municipality includes the cadastral communes of Kading, Karnburg, Möderndorf, Possau and St. Michael am Zollfeld.
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History
The Zollfeld valley has been a cultural and political centre since Celtic tribes settled in the region. When their kingdom of Noricum had become a province of the Roman Empire in 15 BC, Roman Emperor Claudius had the city of Virunum erected as the province's capital at the foot of the nearby Magdalensberg, where on the hill top a splendid Celtic settlement had already existed. Virunum became a centre of Early Christianity in the early 4th century as the centre of a bishopric under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
When Slavic tribes entered the region around 590, they settled in a place called Krnski grad/Karnburg close to Virunum. Here the ritual of installing the princes took place on the Prince's Stone (Slovene: knežji kamen), the base of an ancient Roman Ionic column originating from Virunum. The ceremony was continued in the local dialect of the Slovene language long into the Middle Ages. After the incorporation of Carantania into the Bavarian sphere of influence the ritual was supplemented by a German-language ceremony at the Duke's Chair, a double throne made of stone, which can still be seen near Maria Saal.
The second Christianization of the area began at about 767 under Bishop Vergilius of Salzburg. His missionary Modestus (Apostle of Carinthia), built the first church of the Assumption of Mary at Maria Saal/Gospa Sveta, across the plain from Krnski Grad/Karnburg, probably a smallish wooden church that has vanished long since, as the centre of his missionary activities. From this bishop's church - by no means a cathedral in the modern sense of the word - Christianity was spread all over Carantania.
Karnburg remained the political capital when Carantania became a march of the Frankish Empire. The Carolingian Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia († 899), probably born in nearby Moosburg, built a Kaiserpfalz here. When Emperor Otto II separated Carinthia from Bavaria in 976, Karnburg also was the political centre of the duchy, a function that later was taken over by the ducal town of Sankt Veit an der Glan, a few miles to the north, and finally in the 16th century by the City of Klagenfurt to the south.
Cathedral
Maria Saal is famous for its large church in seemingly transitional style from Romanesque to Gothic. Not much remains from the Romanesque church that had replaced the bishop's church of Modestus and his successors. The present fortified church building goes back to the mid-15th century and is in high Gothic style, actually reconstructed within 20 years after the big fire of 1669. Remembering the church's predecessor, which, as the church of Bishop Modestus, was the religious center of Carinthia in the 8th century and practically an episcopal see until 945, the present church is popularly still called a "Dom", i.e. "cathedral", which it, of course, has never been. The Roman sarcophagus beneath the church is said to contain the remains of Modestus. Still today, however, it is a major pilgrimage site for both German and Slovene speaking Carinthians and even for Slovene nationals.citation needed
Notable people
- Friedrich Welwitsch, botanist, born February 25, 1806 in Maria Saal, died October 20, 1872 in London.
Sister cities
Literature
"Maria Saal", Venice 2002, Alessandra Bettini Silvia Carraro; Tesi di laurea
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