Leaving the basilica via the south exit one comes to the Chapel of St Michael. This Late Gothic octagonal building with round tracery windows dates from the end of the 15th century and in the past served as a chamel house for bones from the closed graveyard around the church. The undercroft still has this function.
The upper floor, with the stellar-ribbed vault, is used for masses and christenings. The altarpiece from 1754 depicts Saint Michael; the cross once stood in the basilica. After the fire in 1827, the roof of the Chapel of St Michael was replaced and was built lower down than the original roof.
Sigmundsberg chapel
Sigmundsberg Chapel stands on the site of old fortifications once controlling access to Mariazell. The church was built in 1471, then soon destroyed, and rebuilt in 1501 as a single-aisle Gothic mountain church with two bays and a chancel of five sides of an octagon. The sextagonal wooden roof turret and the roof are from an earlier period. The altar picture of 1761 depicts Maria lactans upon a crescent moon. The chapel contained the Statue of Mercy for a temporary period after the fire of 1827.
St Sebastian's Church
St Sebastian's Church was designed and built after 1644 by the master builder of the Mariazell Basilica - Domenico Sciassia. The central building on a cross-shaped floor plan is the last station for pilgrims on the 'via sacra' from Vienna to Mariazell.
The martyrdom of the church patron is impressively depicted on the column before the high altar. Parts of the high altar were created in 1643 by Michael Honel and were originally intended for an altar in the basilica. Around 1730 the altar was altered and erected in St Sebastian's Church. The altar painting depicting the Assumption of the Virgin is by Fridericus Stilpp. Above the Coronation of the Virgin and statues of St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist can be seen. To the sides are the sculptures of St Lambert, the patron saint of Saint Lambrecht Monastery, and St Benedict. The internal pair of columns is decorated with high quality reliefs of the mystery of the rosary. The side-altars show St Roch and St Rosalia, who like St Sebastian are also honoured as patron saints against the plague.
Chapel of the Holy Spring
The Chapel of the Holy Spring was constructed near to the basilica in 1711 by Abbot Anton Stroz of Saint Lambrecht. The spring is claimed to have healing powers for eye ailments. In the baroque altar is a seated Madonna with Child from the 15th century, to the left and right are statues of St Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin. The healing water flows from vessels held by angels flanking the altar.
One enters the square building with two bays through a portal with a triangular gable. In the interior one sees a mirror ceiling with a surrounding cornice on flat pilasters. In the middle of the ceiling fresco, the Holy Spirit glides over the waters. All further depictions also refer to the healing spring: Moses striking water from the rocks, Jesus with the Samaritan at the well, Naaman bathing in the Jordan, and the healing of the blind man at the pool of Siloe.
Brother Klaus Church
The Brother Klaus Church on the banks of the Hubertus Lake in the Walster area lies in the heart of an untouched landscape, nine kilometres from Mariazell. The building of the new church took place in 1966/67 in honour of St Nicholas of Flue. Two Styrian artists, Rudolf Szyszkowitz (concreted glass windows) and Alexander Silveri (cast-iron portal), have immortalised themselves in this church. Nicholas of Flue (also known as Brother Klaus), born on the Flüeli near Sachseln in 1417, was a farmer, member of parliament and a judge. He retreated to Ranft, and as a hermit also exercised great political influence over the fortune of his country.
This little church is very popular for marriages and christenings.
Above the two sacristies are the Mariazell Basilica treasure chambers, in which the objects brought by pilgrims to the Mother of God are kept. Through their dedication in gratitude, or the plea for help in certain matters, these objects became votive offerings. Neither the material nor artistic worth of these offerings, but rather the personal fates behind these witnesses of faith, are decisive for their qualification as 'treasure'. For this reason a great diversity of the offerings accumulated in the course of centuries.
Ascent to the treasure chambers is in the north-western tower, to the left.
