The baroque church of Innsbruck Cathedral is certainly a marvel to look at. I don’t remember when I last visited a baroque cathedral but I do remember that they tend to be very beautiful. This is a little different from the experience you get from visiting a gothic church which tends to project the majesty of God through architecture. I don’t think anyone would dispute that “beautiful” is something that would be used to describe baroque churches. Like most churches the high altar is at the very end of the Innsbruck cathedral.

There is something special about the high altar of the cathedral and that there is a special painting here called Maria Hilf or Mary of Succor. It is considered to be one of the most venerated images of Mary and surprisingly, there wasn’t much attention paid to it. I only knew about this after I left the church. I think part of the issue is that the painting itself isn’t very large. Additionally, if it was that venerated, I would have expected a lot more people to be praying nearby but then the painting is right above the main altar and the altar area is off limits to visitors. This means that I wouldn’t have known about the importance of the painting anyway since they would be “just” praying.

[xmlgm {https://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/InnsbruckCathedral.kmz} zoom=19]