Edwardian-era real photo postcard of the Schatzkammer (Treasury) of the Mariazell Basilica in Styria, Austria — a darkened interior view showing the elaborately carved and gilded North Treasury altar with its candelabra and votive objects on the left, and tall display cases packed floor-to-ceiling with centuries of offerings — silver reliquaries, votive tablets, precious vessels, framed paintings — along the right wall, with a kneeling rail in the foreground. Mariazell is the most important pilgrimage destination in Austria and one of the great shrines of central Europe, founded in 1157 and drawing pilgrims from Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and beyond for eight centuries; the treasury accumulated its extraordinary collection of votive offerings from Habsburg emperors, Hungarian kings, and countless individual pilgrims. A writer named Leni mailed this in 1908, writing to a friend to apologize for a long silence — "Hier in Mariazell sehr lustig" — very merry here in Mariazell.

• Caption: "Mariazell — Schatzkammer." (card no. 51)
• Publisher: Photobrom, ges. gesch. 1906, No. 51
• Postmark: Mariazell, c.1908
• Status: Posted