Beyond the railway bridge is seen the Bogenberg at the foot of which
is the pleasant village of Bogen. On the top of the ’berg is an old
pilgrimage church, erected in consequence of one of the various
miracles that belong to the neighbourhood, and the ruins of a castle,
at one time the seat of one of those robber-nobles who must have made
travelling in these parts a terrible thing in the olden days. To Sossau
we have seen--and with the particularity of a date not often attached
to such happenings--a picture was brought by angels; to Bogen there
floated, up-stream, on the waters of the Danube a hollow stone image
of the Virgin. Here it grounded, and the hill-top chapel was duly
built to house it, and in course of time became famous as a pilgrimage
church. Sometimes, it is recorded, as many as eight thousand pilgrims
at a time have journeyed to Our Lady of Bogen. Owing to its exposed
position--the hill-top is nearly four hundred feet above the river--the
church has often been damaged by storm, and once when it was crowded
with pilgrims. This was on Whit Tuesday, 1618, when the tower was
struck by lightning, and the congregation, in the panic that ensued,
crushed several of their number to death. Æmilius Hemmauer, a prior of
Ober-Altaich, who recorded the tragedy in verse, describes how--
“In one thousand six hundred and eighteen,
On the third day of Whitsun near midnight.”
when the church was closely crowded the tower was struck and fell in;
two people were killed outright, and in the subsequent struggle--
“The great force crushed without sparing
Four men and ten women,
There lay ye in two graves, dead,
Three men, seven women; console ye, God.”
The account is not very explicit; presumably one of the men and three
of the women recovered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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