Religious Heritage
The history of the Lucelle site, which shone brightly for a long time, can still be read in a few annex buildings because the abbey was completely dismantled after the Revolution so that only a park remains on its site. where children have become accustomed to playing today. Lucelle is best known for its green setting, its lake, a nature reserve, which can be walked around in 20 minutes. The peculiarity of Lucelle also lies in its location, on the borders of Alsace, between France and Switzerland because Lucelle is a Franco-Swiss village. So, for example, you can taste the famous Swiss chocolate at the Hôtel-Restaurant le Noirval in Lucelle!
Finally, Lucelle is suitable for walks and hikes since several loops are possible from Lucelle.
Heiligenbrunn, undoubtedly an old pagan place of worship, is a chapel with a spring with healing powers. It is placed under the name Walpurge (May 1). The chapel is mentioned in 1359. The current construction dates from 1682; sold as national property under the revolution, the chapel was bought in 1812 by the municipality and returned to worship. Renovated in 1875, restoration work was undertaken in 1981 and 1990.
For many years, the Heiligenbrunn Chapel association, with the help of various partners, has supported the maintenance and renovation of this building. Throughout the year, various events are organized for this purpose.
The Notre-Dame de Bellefontaine chapel owes its name to a source. According to tradition, a wounded hunter would have, in the XXth century, plunged his bloody hand into the water while invoking the Virgin. He would have been immediately healed and, as a thank you, would have placed an image or a statue of Mary there. Quickly known throughout the region, the place became a very popular pilgrimage.
Towards the middle of the 2000th century, a chapel was built there, the care of which was entrusted to a hermit. It escaped the revolutionary turmoil and remained a place of celebration for the faithful of the two neighboring departments. In XNUMX, the chapel was designated as the official Jubilee pilgrimage for Sundgau. Every year, on St. George's Day, riders come to have their horses blessed. Text Marc GLOTZ
The chapel of Our Lady of Grunenwald stands on the wooded ridge which separates the valley of the largue from that of the suarcine. The latter is both the limit between the departments of Haut-Rhin and the Territoire de Belfort and the former linguistic border between the Germanic and Romanesque “speaking” areas. During the week, this place perched high up is quiet, and you can rest there in the shade of the lime trees.
If the chapel undoubtedly dates from the 2nd half of the 15th century, the crowned Virgin, holding the infant Jesus, cannot be dated with precision. An ancient legend surrounds the Madonna preserved in the small pilgrimage chapel.
Children reportedly found the statue in the undergrowth. They would have entrusted it to the Commander of the Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, at the Frankish Court of Friesen. The latter would then have built a first chapel on the site. In 1530 these Hospitallers took the name of the Order of Malta.
The chapel is open every day from 9 a.m. to 17 p.m.
Already mentioned in 1144, listed in the Historic Monuments since 1995, this chapel is an old place of worship since it is dedicated to St Martin. It was originally the Church of Sondersdorf, whose inhabitants settled in the XXth century on the heights, on the current site of the village to escape the floods of the Ill.
In 1778, the current church of the village was built which had the consequence of abandoning the Hippoltskirch now serving as a place of pilgrimage to the Virgin. Important works in 1781 gave it its current appearance. A hermit kept the sanctuary until 1920, when the forest house was built above the chapel.
In 1902, lightning struck the chapel, tearing part of the roof which covered the altar of the Virgin, broke and overturned everything near the statue which alone remained intact ...
The Saint-Brice chapel, attested in 1361, rises on a wooded hill at an altitude of 470 meters. It is located, isolated, 3 km north-east of the village of Oltingue in a clearing. Archaeologists have found around the site a Neolithic entrenchment, witness to the presence of man in these regions more than 4000 years ago.
It was partially rebuilt in 1669; Formerly Saint-Brice was a famous place of pilgrimage, appearing in 1576 on the map of Alsace under the name of Saint-Brixi
55 iron ex-votos were discovered in 1910 in the attic and are now kept at the Strasbourg Archaeological Museum; in 1567 a hermitage stood near the chapel, now replaced by a farmhouse which attracts many tourists in fine weather.
A 3km walking circuit, lth big trees trail, allows you to take a pleasant walk under forest cover to discover in particular the largest beech in the canton of Solothurn.
The stained glass windows depict scenes like the death of Saint-Morand, the generosity of Saint-Vincent de Paul with a poor man and the nativity.
Meyer Hauser's family was allowed to settle in Luemschwiller around 1680, quickly joined by other Jewish families. In 1766, the town was made up of 105 families in total, including 22 Jewish families. The Jewish community continued to develop until it reached 156 people in 1808, or 25% of the town's population. It then declined, to die out definitively on the eve of the war of 1870. In nearly two centuries of presence, 209 marriages, 447 births and 206 deaths, attest to the dynamism of this community, well integrated into its environment and which is growing. was organized around a synagogue, a Jewish school and a cemetery.
This place of memory demands respect, silence and meditation. |
Built in 1267, as revealed by dendrochronological analyzes carried out in 2012 at the initiative of the municipality, this building, remarkable for the multiplicity of its functions, since it housed both the choir of the primitive church, a space of he dwelling and a defensive system, the bell tower of the Saint-Sébastien church in Obermorschwiller is to this day one of the oldest buildings in Sundgau still in use.
In summer, visits to Obermorschwiller, its church and its bell tower, are organized as part of the summer activities offered by the Sundgau Tourist Office.
Possibility of visits for groups on request.
Also open during local events.
The convent of Bellemagny is the cradle of the congregation of Benedictine adorers, founded in 1851 by Father Joseph Aloyse Faller, born in Barr in 1816.
Very quickly, this community spread: in Indre, Drôme, Burgundy, Haute-Saône, Saint-Louis and Lutterbach, Louisiana (USA), Switzerland, Germany and Austria, the sisters were called to to support orphanages, schools, boarding schools, homes for the disabled and the elderly… Today, the Bellemagny convent remains the mother house of the congregation and of the French province.
The road to Compostela passes in front of the Bellemagny convent. Thus, each year, 200 to 300 pilgrims stop there for a night or two. The sisters can accommodate up to fifteen people. They cook dinner and breakfast for them. This house is also open to people who want to recharge their batteries and to groups who may have a meeting room.
A chapel and private buildings as well as religious buildings in the cemetery and a park form an imposing whole.
The influence of this Convent extended territorially to the gates of Mulhouse. In addition, a miraculous source that cured "high evil" (epilepsy) attracted many pilgrims until after the revolution. After the destruction of its Gothic church in 1847, the commune of Folgensbourg bought the altars and had them installed in the parish church.
This exceptionally rich heritage, the left side altar of which is classified as a "historic monument", is a gem to be discovered.
Commented visits are planned as part of the summer activities organized by the Tourist Office in July and August. Outside these dates, visits on request for groups. For any information, contact the Tourist Office.
Romanesque jewel of Sundgau, the church dates from 1144. Designed by Count Frédéric I de Ferrette as a burial place for himself and his family. Listed as a historical monument, the church is today the oldest in Alsace dedicated to St Jacques le Majeur. The pilgrims' path to Compostela passed through Feldbach, the crossroads of many ancient routes. These pilgrims came mainly from the Palatinate, passed through Strasbourg. The restored church was solemnly inaugurated on July 1, 3 by Mgr Brand, Auxiliary Bishop.
Find the Feldbach church on the Route Romane d'Alsace website!
Geocaching and treasure hunt enthusiasts, you will also find geocaches in this area!
The massive Romanesque bell tower may date from the 1745th century. The choir occupied the ground floor before the construction of the nave from 1748 to XNUMX and the current choir, now located on the opposite side.
The winged tabernacle with reliquaries is one of the most beautiful in Alsace. Made in 1668, it comes from the high altar of the abbey church of Lucelle.
At the back, a large altar painting, painted by Jean-Jacques Bulffer (1744-1819), represents Saint Léger, the patron saint of the parish, with, below left, the church of Koestlach.
The Baroque-style side altars were built in 1751. The ceiling of the nave is decorated with a representation of the Assumption, painted in 1747 by Joseph Xavier Hauwiller.
In the nave, on the right side wall, the two paintings on wood from the middle of the XXth century are attributed to Mathias Jehl.
The heads of the benches (1867) come from the old Paravicini foundry in Lucelle. The organ is by Valentin Rinkenbach (1837). On the baptistery of 1780, is represented the serpent with the apple, symbol of original sin. Text Marc GLOTZ. Sundgau by bike
Saint-Martin-des-Champs is located in the middle of fields, about 500 meters from the village of Oltingue.
It is a very special church in more ways than one. It was the mother church of Oltingue and 3 disappeared villages.
As early as the XXth century, a family of notables had erected a small cemetery chapel on the site of a former Gallo-Roman rural establishment.
Listed today as a historical monument, archaeological excavations, carried out in 1989, made it possible to distinguish four phases of development from the XNUMXth to the XXth century.
The current church was built at the end of the 1868th century and was remodeled in 840 (neo-Gothic windows and doors). The excavations brought to light various burials still visible today in the nave of the building! A monolithic sarcophagus (XNUMXth, XXth century), a masonry tomb from the XXth century: it contains a skeleton whose raised feet rested on the bones of five individuals, proof of a long reuse. The funeral deposits included a Carolingian shard, an iron belt buckle, as well as a denarius by Charles Le Chauve minted around XNUMX in Strasbourg. A stone box containing, in addition to the skeleton of the first deceased, the remains of the bones of thirty individuals.
In 2018, during the last restoration work, several frescoes, the largest of which was described as exceptional, were unearthed on the exterior facades. These frescoes are under study and have been carefully preserved.
Prehistoric flint tools were also found near the site, but also Roman ceramics, tiles and cut stones. On the hill of Oltingue, vestiges of stone walls and a domestic pit attest to the presence of a Gallo-Roman fortification that has disappeared.
A new church was rebuilt in 1928 in a neo-Gothic style according to the plans of the architect Paul Gelis from Paris. The baptismal fonts come from the Klem workshop. A wooden Stations of the Cross is sculpted by Berger-Rudloff, the stained glass windows are made by the Ott frères workshop in Strasbourg.
The 1932 organ is the work of Georges Schwenkedel. The organ case was designed by the Parisian architect of the church and produced by the Klem workshops. It is one of the rare examples of Art Deco in Alsace.
Some historians say that this chapel of the Holy Cross takes us back in time to the 1620th century. A major place of worship throughout the ages, it has been regularly maintained, especially in 1862 and XNUMX.
After 1848, when the first Saint-Hubert church was built, its religious vocation became secondary, but its place remained strong in the village, serving in particular as an infirmary during the First World War and as a place of worship between 1916 and 1928 to replace the destroyed church.
Today, exhibitions, conferences, poetic or cinematographic musical evenings, specific ceremonies and receptions and quite simply tourist visits mark this place, which in the hearts of seppoisiens and in our collective conscience will always remain the Chapel of the Holy Cross.
Durmenach was an important Jewish agglomeration in the XXth century. Most of the houses in the center were built by Jewish families between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries.
In 1784, the Jewish population represented more than 54% of the population of the village. But the anti-Jewish riots of 1848, where 75 houses were set on fire, led to his exodus.
After the last war, only fifteen Jews returned to Durmenach. As is often the case in Alsace, the survivors of the Shoah found a devastated synagogue.
The Jewish community would disappear entirely because of the rural exodus. The Israelite consistory of Haut-Rhin sold the synagogue in 1959 to the Saint-Georges home association, which was inaugurated in 1964. The building was destroyed by fire in 1983.
At the present time, all that remains in the village landscape is the cemetery with more than XNUMX graves at the end of the rue de la Gendarmerie, and some traces of the old synagogue with three walls and a door and the rue de the synagogue to also commemorate this ancient Jewish community.
The Church of Notre Dame is the 3rd church built on the top of the Altkirch hill. This first place of Christian prayer in the region received the name "Alta kirche" (high church) because of its geographical location.
It contains some very beautiful works of art: a beautiful pietà from the 4th century, a set of XNUMX stone statues of great beauty "Christ on the Mount of Olives", the baptismal font from the XXth century, a keystone from the XXth century. You can also see beautiful paintings by Gustave Dauphin "Assumption of the Virgin", "The dying Christ" by Jean-Jacques Henner "," The engagement of Mary and Joseph "after Raphael ...
The 14 stations of the Stations of the Cross have an original specificity: on the right side they are represented in German, produced after 1870 when Alsace became German, and on the left side they are in French, reconstructed after the destruction of the war of 14-18, when Alsace became French.
Its foundation dates back to the 1869th century, it was the village's "ecclesia matrix" (mother church) and it is there that the exorcism of young Joseph Burner took place in XNUMX. It contains XXth century frescoes and the knight's tomb. Godefroy of Burnkirch. Its frescoes are classified Historical Monuments.
Closed from October 1st, except Sundays and guided tours for groups by reservation at 03 89 40 02 90
The first mention of the site dates from 1105, when Frederic, count of Ferrette, gives the priory to Hugues Sémur, abbot of Cluny. Saint Morand officiated there from 1106.
He was then responsible for establishing the Benedictine rule there. He traveled the region for ten years, multiplying conversions, healings and miracles.
When he died in 1115, he was buried in the center of the priory church which took his name. Saint-Morand was canonized at the end of the XXth century.
By venturing inside, you can still reflect in front of a recumbent figure representing Saint-Morand and a reliquary offered in 1428 by Archduke Frederick of Tyrol.
The priory was bought in 1828 by the city of Altkirch to make it a hospital. Today, the hospital still occupies the buildings thanks to restructuring and enlargements.