In which Austrian town was the carol 'Silent Night' first performed in 1818?

The carol “Silent Night” was first performed in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, on Christmas Eve in 1818.

The words were written by the young priest Joseph Mohr. He had composed the poem in 1816 while working in Mariapfarr, in the Salzburg region, and later served in Oberndorf. On Christmas Eve 1818, Mohr asked Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolmaster and organist from nearby Arnsdorf, to set the text to music.

Mohr and Gruber presented the new German carol, “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,” at Oberndorf’s parish church, the Nikolauskirche. It was accompanied by guitar. A popular story says the church organ had been damaged by flooding, prompting the guitar arrangement, though versions of that explanation are treated cautiously by historians.

The original church was eventually lost to repeated flooding, and the Silent-Night-Chapel now commemorates the premiere site. The song spread internationally through traveling singers and was later translated into many languages. UNESCO added “Silent Night” to Austria’s intangible cultural heritage inventory in 2011. Oberndorf is near Salzburg, but it is a separate town.