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Schöder is a municipality in the judicial district or district of Murau in Styria, Austria. The municipality of Schöder is located at the foot of the Sölkpass, which provides a transport link across the Niedere Tauern from the Murtal to the Ennstal.

Culture and sights

    Important for the culture of the community is the Schöderer Marienkirche. Beautiful medieval frescoes were uncovered during an extensive restoration in the 1960s. The pilgrimage church Maria Schöder was built in the 12th century and burned down almost completely once. The cemetery was moved to the beginning of the village in the course of the restoration, what remained was the charnel church attached to the churchyard wall, dedicated to St. Anna. The reputation as a pilgrimage church goes back to a plague vow of the inhabitants of Oberzeiring (district Murtal). This pilgrimage is held every year on May 1, the pilgrims walk the more than 40 km on foot during the night, so that they are in Schöder at the beginning of mass. Also from this pilgrimage originated the custom of the "Schöderer/Zeiringer Vögel": according to legend, in times of plague the pilgrims captured birds in Schöder to take them home, where all life had disappeared after the plague. To prevent this from happening in the following years, the inhabitants of Schöder gave the pilgrims pastries in the shape of birds (Gebildbrot). The stories about the plague in the Pölstal and Freital, district of Murtal (Judenburg) and the resulting pilgrimage were written down by the writer and priest Fridolin von Freytal in the book "Das Hochgericht im Birkachwald".

    "Dedicated to the popular writer Fridolin von Freytal Geistl. Rat, Dechant und Pfarrer von Schöder 1877 - 1898 born to Pusterwald on 12.7.1832, died to Schöder 12.2.1903 on the 30th anniversary of his death by his admirers on 26.2.1933."

- Inscription commemorative plaque Pfarrhof

    The so-called Baierdorf fortified tower was built in the 11th century under Archbishop Gebhart. The fortification was besieged in the course of the uprising of the Styrian nobility in the Landsberg League against Duke Albrecht I in 1292, destroyed and rebuilt in 1296. The defense tower is 29 meters high and has six floors. The tower guards of Baierdorf lived on the sixth floor until 1641. The tower served primarily as a granary for the grain that was collected by the Archbishop of Salzburg as a tithe. This tenth part of the harvest was the tax of the farmers to the archbishopric. The fresco of St. Christopher was painted in the 16th century and is the second oldest and largest fresco in Styria.