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Oberndorf bei Salzburg is a town in Austria. It is located in the north of the state of Salzburg on the right bank of the Salzach River opposite the Bavarian border town of Laufen. Oberndorf is where the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night was first performed in 1818.

Culture and sights

Silent night, holy night

In Oberndorf, the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night was performed in public for the first time in 1818 during the Christmas mass in the old parish church of St. Nikolai by the assistant parish priest Joseph Mohr (lyrics) and the teacher Franz Xaver Gruber (melody) who worked in Arnsdorf. The Silent Night Chapel has stood on the site since 1937. The Silent Night Museum is located in the immediate vicinity. Every year on December 24, a Christmas celebration takes place at the chapel.

With the Mohr-Gruber monument, there is a memorial to the creators of the song in front of the current town parish church.

The German-Austrian television film Das ewige Lied (1997) about pastor Joseph Mohr is set in Oberndorf around the year 1818.

In 2018, the Christmas carol and its message were the subject of a provincial exhibition in which Oberndorf was one of several exhibition sites.