MARIAZELL, a village in the duchy of Styria, Austria, with about 1200 inhabitants, is very picturesquely situated in the valley of the Salza, amid the Styrian Alps. Its entire claim to notice lies in the fact that it is the most frequented sanctuary in Austria, being visited annually by about 100,000 pilgrims. The object of veneration is a miracle-working image of the Virgin, carved in lime-tree wood, and about 18 inches high. This was presented to the place in 1157, and is now reverently enshrined in a chapel lavishly adorned with objects of silver and other costly materials. The large church of which the chapel forms part was erected in 1644 as an expansion of a smaller church built in 1363 by Louis I., king of Hungary, after a victory over the Turks. It possesses four lofty towers. In the immediate vicinity of Mariazell there is a very large and important iron foundry, formerly worked by Government, but now leased to a company.