"Where pilgrims descend into the rock to meet the Madonna in her stone dwelling"
Mariastein Abbey
Metzerlen-Mariastein, Solothurn, Switzerland
Fifty-nine steps lead down into the earth beneath a late Gothic basilica in northwest Switzerland, where a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary stands free in the rock face of a natural cave. Mariastein Abbey, Switzerland's second most important pilgrimage site after Einsiedeln, draws approximately 250,000 visitors each year to the Gnadenkapelle carved into the cliff where two miraculous rescues shaped centuries of devotion. A Benedictine community that has survived revolutionary sacking, three exiles, and Gestapo closure continues to welcome pilgrims of all backgrounds, including Hindu Tamil devotees who recognize the cave's spiritual power through their own tradition.
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Quick Facts
Location
Metzerlen-Mariastein, Solothurn, Switzerland
Tradition
Site Type
Coordinates
47.4723, 7.4887
Last Updated
Jan 28, 2026
Learn More
Mariastein's history spans from a late fourteenth-century miraculous rescue to a Benedictine monastery that survived revolution, exile, and Nazi persecution. The Gnadenkapelle has been a pilgrimage destination for over six centuries.
Origin Story
The founding narrative begins with gravity and grace. In the late fourteenth century, a child fell from the cliff above the cave and was found alive at the bottom, the rescue attributed to the intervention of the Virgin Mary. The cave became a chapel, first mentioned in written records in 1434, where Augustinian hermits from Basel tended the growing stream of pilgrims.
A century later, the pattern repeated. In 1541, nobleman Hans Thuring of the Reichenstein family survived a fall from the same cliff. The second miracle transformed the chapel into a family shrine, the Reichensteiner Chapel, and pilgrimage to the site intensified considerably.
The decisive transformation came in 1636 when Benedictine monks from Beinwil Abbey, one of Switzerland's oldest monastic foundations dating to the twelfth century, took charge of the pilgrimage site. In 1648, Abbot Fintan Kiefer made the radical decision to merge the two institutions entirely, relocating Beinwil Abbey to Mariastein. The ancient monastic tradition of Beinwil fused with the pilgrimage tradition of the cave, creating an institution greater than either predecessor. The new monastery church was consecrated on October 31, 1655.
What followed tested the community beyond what most institutions could survive. French Revolutionary forces sacked the monastery in 1798, part of the broader anti-clerical violence that swept through Europe. The community was exiled from Switzerland in 1874, finding refuge in France. When France expelled religious orders in 1902, the monks moved to Austria, first to Durrnberg near Salzburg, then to Bregenz in Vorarlberg. The Gestapo closed their Austrian monastery in 1941 during the Nazi suppression of religious communities.
The monks returned to Mariastein in 1941, but the site did not officially reopen as a functioning monastery until 1971. The community that exists today carries the memory of each displacement and each return, a resilience that has become part of Mariastein's spiritual identity.
Key Figures
Abbot Fintan Kiefer
Merged Beinwil Abbey with the Mariastein pilgrimage site in 1648, creating the monastery in its modern form
Hans Thuring of Reichenstein
Nobleman whose 1541 survival of a cliff fall confirmed the site's miraculous reputation and led to the Reichensteiner Chapel
Spiritual Lineage
The Benedictine community at Mariastein traces its origins to Beinwil Abbey, founded in the twelfth century. Beinwil had fallen into decline by the seventeenth century, and the merger with Mariastein under Abbot Fintan Kiefer in 1648 effectively saved the monastic lineage by binding it to a living pilgrimage tradition. The community follows the Rule of Saint Benedict, maintaining the Liturgy of the Hours, daily mass, and the disciplines of communal monastic life.
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