(CNN) - In snowbound Bavaria, in Germany's southeast, it is minus 18.
There's a place of worship that couldn't exist without the freezing temperatures.
Since it opened just after Christmas, more than 10,000 people have braved the climb and the climate to come and visit this strange, almost magical little structure, atop a Bavarian Hill. The snow church, they call it, was built to commemorate another snow church that transformed the lives of the villagers of Mitterfirmiansreut 100 years before.
The reason the villagers wanted to build a snow church was because otherwise they had to walk three hours to the next door village to attend the mass. So, they built this here and they sold this postcard and through all the postcards that were sold they were able to make enough money to build a real church. And so, they swapped the snow for bricks and mortar.
Michael Ploechinger, who helped build this latest church, says he doesn't remember stories of the first church. "Not really", he says, "but I do remember as a child somehow understanding that there was a lot more snow back then than there is now."
Be that is it may, there's still plenty to go round plus bitter wind chill. Services are short. This one's just ten minutes. It's difficult to stick it out for longer when it's minus eighteen outside, even if it is warmer inside than out.
Visitors say, "I think it's quite nice and also interesting but it's also very cold here!"
"Oh fantastic, look at the view - it's absolutely stunning isn't it?" "It's not about the view it's about the Church!"
You don't get the view, but it's really at night that the snow church looks it's best.
Lit a deep blue it glows above the village, the cross blazing through the icy stillness inside.
It takes two months to build and probably another two before it begins to melt.
