Pfarrkirche St. Ulrich

The parish church, which is unusually large for the small village of Obertilliach, stands on the eastern edge of the village and towers above all the surrounding buildings with its proud church tower. The parish church, which is dedicated to the patron saint St. Ulrich of Augsburg, is a listed building.

The baroque-style church was completely renovated just a few years ago and is one of the most beautiful sacred buildings in the entire Gail and Lesach valleys. The impressive baroque hall building is surrounded by a beautifully maintained cemetery with an enclosing wall and the façades are artistically decorated with architectural paintings, columns and window frames. The ceiling frescoes by Anton and Josef Anton Zoller from 1764 depict important scenes such as communion and symbolic representations from the Old Testament. The parish church of St. Ulrich was built by parish priest and church architect Franz de Paula Penz at the request of the community between 1762 and 1783, as the attraction of the miraculous activity of the so-called Tabernacle Mother of God - a copy of the Waldauf Madonna in Hall in Tyrol - triggered an increasing number of pilgrimages.

A special custom in Obertilliach is the "Zutagegehen". From the 1st Sunday in October until Palm Sunday, the people of Obertilliach gather in the parish church at 4 o'clock in the morning to pray a rosary.

In summer, the church bells also ring at 5 am and 7 pm in the evening. This tradition goes back to the "Betläuten" in earlier times. At the sound of the bells, people would pause for a moment, say a prayer and then get back to work.