Landau Chapel
The Landau Chapel is a corridor chapel on the Kallenberg, northwest of Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz . It is popularly known as the Loreto Chapel, Roman Chapel or Blacksmith's Chapel. As a cultural monument, it is of national cultural and historical importance. It is occasionally used for church services and baptisms.
Foundation, endowment
The latter name goes back to its founder, the blacksmith Johann Georg Römer. He suffered from rheumatism or gout and had his journeymen take him on a stretcher to the Italian pilgrimage site of Loreto (Marche) . There he vowed in front of the miraculous image of the Blessed Mother to rebuild the destroyed chapel on Landauer Weg in her honor, if he would be redeemed from his sufferings. He returned healthy and with new courage to live and kept his promise by rebuilding the chapel in 1681. The previous building from 1508 was destroyed in the Thirty Years War .
Building
The chapel is a compact building with a hipped roof, bell tower and wooden vestibule; late Gothic in core. Fresco secco wall paintings from the beginning of the 16th and the second half of the 17th century show Christ with the apostles, a crucifixion group and other figures. On the baroque altar there is a three-dimensional stone figure of the Madonna and Child. An image of the Mother of God in Loreto was destroyed on March 23, 1945 by an artillery direct hit.
The cultural value of the chapel was recognized in 1951 with the discovery of the frescoes, protected and preserved through restoration.
literature
Place of faith, station of life - The Landau Chapel, a venerable sanctuary in the Herxheimer Bannkreis, is 325 years old , in: DIE RHEINPFALZ - Palatinate Daily Gazette from July 26, 1986
Coordinates: 49 ° 9 '12.4 " N , 8 ° 11' 57.9" E