there are many traditional stories of angelic processions here, which come from the 17th century. the tradition of pilgrimage to maria taferl also dates back to that time. in 1760 alone, there were 700 pilgrimage processions and over 19,000 masses said there. the church is also a kind of information treasure chest about its pilgrims, their origins, and their number. within it are the gifts of the pilgrims, who came on account of illness and were cured. another reason for maria taferl's importance as a pilgrimage destination was the stone cross, a gift from the citizens of freistadt for pilgrims who died on the journey. it is also evidence of the exhausting nature of pilgrimage in those days. the murdered archduke franz ferdinand of austria and his family lived in the nearby artstetten castle and is known to have regularly attended mass at maria taferl.