1818: Archduke Johann buys the Brandhof. 1827: Mariazell's largest fire, which incinerates almost the entire town, and leaves the church with great fire damage, occurs on All Souls' Night. 1828 - 1832: The town is rebuilt with great hardship and suffering. 1892: The idle boring machine of the cast-iron factory is converted to a power plant; the following year, Mariazell gets electric power for the first time. 1896: The building of the first public water service begins. 1898: The Mariazell cast iron factory is shut down. 1907: The Mariazellerbahn, finished the previous year, is opened for public transport. That same year, the Mariazell Basilica is elevated to a Basilica Minor. 1911: The Mariazellerbahn becomes electric. 1924: The first festival in the newly built festival theatre is begun. 1925: The festivals reach their high point. In the following years, financial decline brings them to an end. 1928: A gondola to the Bürger Alps becomes the first funicular to be built in Austria. That same year, the water system in expanded around the "Student-Quelle". 1945: The Red Army enters Mariazell and takes accommodations for 5,000 men. 1948: Mariazell is elevated to the status of a city. 1955 - 1957: A general restoration of the church takes place. During these years, a by-pass and a new post office are built. 1966: The fathers of the Kremsmünster Monastery separate from the fathers of the Schottenstift, who had been in charge of the ecclesiastical leadership of Mariazell since 1949. In the following years, extensive restoration work is done on the church, the priory, and the nearby chapel. The new rosary path is also built during this time. 1976: Mariazell gains an indoor swimming pool and, a few years later, the enlargement of its Hauptschule. 1983: Pope John Paul II visits Mariazell. The papal altar is built in the main plaza. In the course of this great event, the entire city receives a façade facelift, the main plaza is redesigned, and parks are created. 1990: Thanksgiving and freedom pilgrimages from the former Eastern Bloc states bring 25,000 participants to Mariazell. 1992: The Bendictines of Kremsmünster transfer the duty of pastoral care for the pilgrimages into the custody of the founding monastery and mother cloister of St. Lambrecht. 2004: Central European Catholic Day - a pilgrimage of the people to Mariazell brings over 100,000 visitors. 2007: Pope Benedict XVI visits Mariazell to celebrate the 850th anniversary of