Golden age and crisis; idealism and luster; sanctity and sin; they all alternate on the path through the centuries, as experienced by the Swiss Einsiedeln Abbey. What started out in the ninth century with Saint Meinrad has since then become a blessing for countless people. Today, the Benedictine monastery can look back at a history spanning more than one thousand years. Popes, emperors, kings, and millions of believers all sought out the place of pilgrimage and demonstrated their reverence with gifts and donations. This publication is therefore not concerned with telling the abbey’s pilgrimage story based on political or economic records, but rather the version based on its material remains: the Ottonian imperial documents, the Black Madonna, as well as the numerous votive tablets and devotionals all speak for themselves, testifying to faith in hope and miracles.Exhibition: Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, Zurich 16.9.2017–21.1.2018