The Partnach Gorge has a Mother of God again. After four months of restoration, the more than 100-year-old Madonna was returned to its original place on a rocky outcrop above the raging floodwaters on Monday. The figure had suffered from the wet and cold there and was increasingly gray.
Now a restorer has removed lime and verdigris from the bronze figure, which weighs a good 50 kilograms and is 1.20 meters tall. During the restoration, a previously unknown cavity inside the Madonna came to light. Contents: three gold coins, nine silver coins and two copper-colored pennies. This is a complete set of one pfennig to 20 Reichsmarks from the years between 1866 and 1899, as the spokeswoman for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen market, Silvia reisen-Schropp, explained.
Also found: a handwritten document. Time and humidity blurred the ink. It is now in Munich and is to be restored. The finds shed new light on the origins of the Madonna figure, which was previously dated to the time the bracket was closed around 1910. However, the Mother of God probably dates back to the time of the woodworkers who built a path through the gorge towards the end of the 19th century.
Now the Madonna was reinstalled in her place carved into the rock with an economical celebration. A Protestant and a Catholic priest led the ceremony. Around 300,000 people visit the Partnachklamm every year. The rocky gorge near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is around 700 meters long and partly more than 80 meters deep, was opened up for tourism at the beginning of the 20th century. It has been a natural monument since 1912 and has been accessible ever since.
The Partnachklamm is open all year round. But there are always closures due to weather. Flooding in particular is a danger; the floods have torn away parts of the path on several occasions. In 2021, among other things, the gorge had to close for weeks for clean-up work and repairs.