In the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden, Germany

 "And thus ever by day and night, under the sun and under the stars, climbing the dusty hills and toiling along the weary plains, journeying by land and journeying by sea, coming and going so strangely, to meet and to act and react on one another, move all we restless travelers through the pilgrimage of life.

-- Charles Dickens
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(in Germany) The Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden is found on the Berchtesgaden Stream in a deep valley surrounded on three sides by Austrian territory, just north of Berchtesgaden National Park. From 1300 the town was ruled by the provosts of its Augustinian abbey, who became princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1491. The town was occupied by Austrian troops in 1704 and was annexed to Austria in 1805. Following a brief period of French rule (from1809–10), it passed to the Bavarian kingdom. Plunging deep into Austria and framed by six high-rise mountain ranges, the Berchtesgadener Land is a gorgeous corner of Bavaria steeped in myths and legends. (Local lore has it that angels given the task of distributing the earth’s wonders were so startled by God’s order to get a move that they dropped them all here by accident.) These may have included the Watzmann, Germany’s second-highest mountain, and the pristine Königssee (lake), perhaps Germany’s most photogenic body of water. Much of the area is protected within the Berchtesgaden National Park, which was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1990. Berchtesgaden’s economic mainstay is the tourist trade, which is based on the scenic locale (including Königssee, the Alpine lake to the south), mountain-climbing, and skiing facilities, and saline baths. Medieval landmarks include the abbey church, on the site of the 12th-century basilica, and the castle, which was originally the residence of the provosts and later the summer residence of the Bavarian kings (it now houses a museum). The town became a major resort and recreational center after World War II.

+ Featured here is the Maria Gern church, is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church in the Berchtesgaden parish of St. Andreas (in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. At the entrance to the district of Vordergern, it is found in a high valley (north of the center of Berchtesgaden), in the district of Maria Gern. It stands on a small hill, the Reitbichl, at the southwestern foot of the Kneifelspitze with a view of the Untersberg in the north and Mount Watzmann (seen here) in the south. The first pilgrimages to Maria Gern were recorded as early as 1600 in the course of the Counter Reformation (but to a smaller chapel further down the valley). A small chapel was built around 1669 on the grounds of today's church, but it was soon overwhelmed with number of pilgrims. On January 2, 1710, the first Holy Mass was celebrated in a newer church. In 1724, the fixed tent roof and the tower in its present form were completed. The interior of the church was finally completed in its current form in 1777.