The catastrophic avalanche of 1693
Of all the catastrophes caused by avalanches which, over the centuries, threatened Schneeberg and its inhabitants, that of 1693 is the best documented:
‘In the year 1693, on Sunday, March 22, at one o’clock in the morning, due to the divine will of God an avalanche suddenly came down from the White Rocks of Schneeberg, swept over the river with great violence and with such a gust of air that it finished up against the dormitory near the main gallery, in which 70 miners lived. Its force was such that it smashed in the roof and the floor of the upper Stube, and reached the foreman’s office, where the spades were kept, so that no-one could clear away the debris. Twenty-seven miners lost their lives and were buried in the church of Lieben Frau at Moos’.
There then follow the names of the victims and of the person who donated the commemorative tablet, the imperial mine administrator Joseph von Leitner den Älteren (1649-1723). This tablet, measuring 90 x 60 cm, was originally kept at Schneeberg, but was moved in 1722 to the new church of Mary of the Snows. In 1955, it was saved from the church (which had burnt down) and in 1979 was given to the Ridnaun miners who, with the best intentions, donated it to the Diocesan Museum of Brixen, but it was later stolen, together with other valuable votive images coming from the little church at Schneeberg.
The second tablet commemorating the same tragedy is housed in the parish church of Moos in Passeier, where the dead were buried on March 26 1693.
A reproduction of this picture may be seen in the rebuilt church at Schneeberg.
‘On March 22 1693, at Schneeberg, they were buried under an avalanche and now lie here’.
From the historical and folklore points of view, of interest is the representation of the victims, kneeling, dressed in the clothes of the times, with a list of their names, and a view of Schneeberg from the same perspective as that shown in the Schwaz Mine Book of 1556. Prominent at the top of the picture are the three patron saints of miners: in the centre the Madonna, seated, with her Child; on the right St. Barbara with a chalice, a martyr’s palm and a tower; and on the left the prophet Daniel with miner’s tools (pick and hammer) in his left hand and a ore sample in his right. Also shown are a Bible and a lion.
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