Mariä Geburt

The Roman Catholic parish church of Schöder stands at the northern edge of the village in the Murau district of Styria. It is dedicated to the Nativity of Mary and belongs to the Upper Styria West region of the Diocese of Graz-Seckau. The church and its graveyard are listed as protected monuments.

The building’s history begins with a chapel recorded in 1234 and a church mentioned in 1370 as a branch of Ranten. After a fire almost destroyed it, the church was rebuilt and extended in the 15th and early 16th centuries as a pilgrimage shrine. During a major restoration in the 1960s medieval frescoes were uncovered. The graveyard was moved to the village entrance, but the St Anne charnel house beside the old churchyard wall remains.

Inside, the two-aisled nave and three-aisled choir show fine Gothic ribbed vaults with dated keystones. A 1504 keystone marks the eastern bay of the nave. The west gallery, rebuilt in the 19th century, carries a restored organ of 1839. The high altar of about 1770 houses a late 15th-century seated Madonna and Child. Late Gothic statues of St Peter and St Paul stand near the entrance, and a cycle of Passion frescoes painted around 1500 covers the choir vault.