Máriapócs in Ostungarn, Maria-Pötsch in Siebeneich in der Schweiz. „Original“ und „Kopie“ einer Wallfahrt

From the end of the 17th century Máriapócs in eastern Hungary arose as a place of pilgrimage, central to which was a (blood) weeping icon of the Virgin Mary. The place of pilgrimage still enjoys great popularity today and is especially visited by members of the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church, originally Rusyns. A replica of the religious painting from Máriapócs can be found in the chapel of Siebeneich (Kerns, Obwalden, Switzerland) built in the first half of the 18th century. Since the early 1950s, when the original religious painting, which over time had been relegated to the background, was „rediscovered“, Hungarians living in Switzerland have made the yearly pilgrimage to Siebeneich. As in Máriapócs, where the pilgrimage of the Uniate minority (and respectively the Rusyn minority) raises the consciousness of their own specific religious identity, so does a pilgrimage to Siebeneich satisfy not only the religious needs of the Hungarian-Swiss, but also confirms and reproduces their particular identity as an ethnic minority living in Switzerland. The article shows how a religious painting, a pilgrimage and even the resulting social function is „copied“ and how this „copy“ becomes again an „original“

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Art history · Chapel · Ethnology · Icon · Painting · Pilgrimage · Political science · Popularity · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Tourism and Spaces