…were heard on Christmas Eve, 1818 in Oberndorf from only a guitar and two voices singing, and yet this was to become the most famous Christmas song in the world.
In 1816, Joseph Mohr composed a poem filled with hope in the village of Mariapfarr. Two years later Franz Xaver Gruber composed the melody, not realising that this simple Christmas Carol will become world-famous.
“Silent Night! Holy Night!” was a message of peace, which spread like wildfire around the world. Today, there is hardly anyone who does not know the contemplative melody, but few people know that the roots of this simple Christmas Carol are in SalzburgerLand, that Franz Xaver Gruber grew up in Upper Austria and that the song went out into the world from Tirol.
The history of the song leads through SalzburgerLand, Upper Austria and Tirol. Lovingly decorated museums, churches and memorials in the Silent-Night-towns, remind of the history and proliferation of this touching song and also the life and work of the two creators – Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber.
