Notre-Dame de Dusenbach
Notre-Dame de Dusenbach is a pilgrimage site and Capuchin monastery near Ribeauvillé in Alsace . The monastery buildings and the three chapels are listed as Monument Historique .
history
The three chapels were built by the von Rappoltstein family
At the end of the 12th century, Egenolph II von Rappoltstein, liege lord of the Basel bishop, followed a call from Pope Innocent III. to the crusade to the Holy Land. He raised a small army and moved east. In 1217 Egenolph II took part in the Damiette crusade under Johann von Brienne . After his return he settled as a hermit in Dusenbach in 1221 to recover from the hardships and atrocities of the war and died there only a little later the following year. The count brought a statue of the Virgin Mary with him from one of the two trips and had a chapel built in Dusenbach as thanks for his happy return. It is not clear whether this was built after the first or only after the second homecoming.
Around 1260 the brothers Ulrich II and Heinrich I von Rappoltstein, nephews of Egenolph II, built a second chapel next to the first.
When the city of Colmar joined the uprising against King Adolf von Nassau in 1296 , Anselm II von Rappoltstein also took part. The king then confiscated the fief and set Anselm II in Swabia. The Rappoltsteiner then vowed that he would build a new chapel in Dusenbach if he were released. Adolf died in 1298. His successor Albrecht I , who had fought Adolf, dismissed Anselm II and gave him back his goods. The count saw his release on February 2, 1297, Mariä Candlemas , as a sign. He kept his promise and built a third chapel.
Destruction and rebuilding
In 1360 the English conquered large parts of Alsace and also plundered Dusenbach. Under the leadership of Arnaud de Cervole , French brigands then marched through the country and plundered churches and monasteries, including Dusenbach. The statue of the Virgin Mary by Egenolph probably also disappeared. In 1370 Bruno I and later Ulrich VII von Rappoltstein began to rebuild the place of pilgrimage after Charles IV's troops had recaptured Alsace. The restoration work was not completed until the second half of the 15th century. Maximin II von Rappoltstein donated a Way of the Cross and a Calvary after he returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1484.
In 1494 the chapels were renovated and the chapel of Count Ulrich II and Heinrich I was redesigned as a holy grave . A way of the cross was built on the footpath from Ribeauvillé to Dusenbach. The chapel of Anselm II became the tomb of Mary. In 1666 two panels with the Annunciation and the death of Mary were hung there. As early as 1494, a statue of Mary was put up. Maximin II replaced the destroyed statue of the Virgin Mary with a wooden Mater Dolorosa carrying Christ in her arms. It was created by Master Laurentz from Ribeauvillé. A small tower was also built to symbolize Christ's captivity before his crucifixion. Since the flow of pilgrims had increased significantly, Maximin hired two chaplains. They were assisted by two Augustinian monks.
In the Thirty Years War: renewed destruction
During the Thirty Years War , the Swedes invaded Alsace under the leadership of Gustaf Horn . While Ribeauvillé was spared as a Protestant community, Dusenbach was burned down. The statue of the Virgin Mary erected in 1494 survived this destruction: it disappeared during the looting in 1632 and was found again in 1656. The Basel prince-bishops Johann Konrad I von Roggenbach and Josef Wilhelm Rinck von Baldenstein then allowed the reconstruction and the start of the pilgrimage. In addition, a house was built for the Capuchins who looked after the place. However, the brothers mostly lived in the village and rarely stayed here.
Destruction during the French Revolution
As part of the French Revolution in 1791 it was decreed that the pilgrimage to Dusenbach had to be stopped and that the chapels would be destroyed. The Ribeauvillé parish was placed under the supervision of a revolutionary priest. But the Catholic residents of the village made a pilgrimage to Dusenbach every Sunday in protest, where priests loyal to Rome celebrated the service. The chapels were confiscated as national property and sold in 1792. The sacred art objects came to the parish church in Ribeauvillé. The new owners, Johann Ignaz Butz and David Ortlieb, however, hesitated to destroy the chapels. It was only when the council ordered the resignation that the chapels and the other buildings were destroyed on March 25, 1794. In 1810 the owners were expropriated and the ruins were passed on to Jakob Domler in 1817. His daughter sold her to the winemaker Gregor Owaller in 1836. From 1837 to 1876 the ruins belonged to the pastor Alois Hiss from Ribeauvillé. With his entry into the Dominican order, the chapels fell to the order. In 1876 Dusenbach was sold to Joseph Wuhrer.
Reconstruction in the 19th century
Although hardly recognizable as a place of pilgrimage, the place remained a destination for walkers and pious people of the region on Sundays. People continued to meet for devotions and pray. The place kept its popularity. In 1892, the Strasbourg bishop Adolf Fritzen came up with the idea of restoring the place of worship. He visited Dusenbach and decided to purchase the ruins. Pastor Aimé Raess enthusiastically agreed and asked for donations. In addition to Ribeauvillé, the municipalities of Bergheim , Saint-Hippolyte , Rorschwihr , Roderen , Hunawihr , Guémar , Zellberg , Gueberschwihr and Kaysersberg as well as many private individuals also took part. The architect Karl Winckler was commissioned with the work. Special emphasis was placed on a restoration that was as true to the original as possible. Older graphics with views of the chapels were used as a model.
In 1893 the path to Dusenbach was first renewed, then the chapels were rebuilt. On May 18, 1894, the Bishop of Strasbourg again allowed a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary to Dusbach and consecrated it on June 10 in a solemn mass to Our Lady . In 1896 the bishop inaugurated a new way of the cross created by the Munich artist Meyer. In 1921/1922 the small station chapels were restored and changed in 1947. Between 2001 and 2004 the stations of the cross were again extensively restored. In 1904, Bishop Fritzen made the Capuchin Brothers parish administrators in Dusenbach. The annex to the chapels, which used to be the apartment for the church servant, was enlarged and raised. Until 2009 a small community of Capuchins lived here. The monastery was reopened on September 11, 2016.
Architecture and equipment
The two older chapels stand one behind the other on a rock and are strongly Gothic. The front one is single-nave and has five yokes. A three-sided choir closes the room. To the east of this is the second church. It has an almost square room with a two-bay choir with a 3/8 end. The third chapel was built in a neo-Gothic style. The small hall church closes with a three-sided choir. In the center of the neo-Gothic altar is the Pietà from the 15th century.
On the neo-Gothic altar of the first church is a Vespers from the 15th century. A second from the 15th century is in the vestibule. In the second chapel there is a crucifix that is a copy of the cross that was burned during the French Revolution.
literature
- Bernhardt: Notice sur l'ancien pèlerinage de Notre-Dame de Dusenbach près Ribeauvillé (Haut-Rhin). In: Revue catholique de l'Alsace. Volume 1. Strasbourg 1859, pp. 209-216 ( digitized version ).
- Léonard Fischer: History of the pilgrimage site Dusenbach. Strasbourg 1894.
- Walter Hotz : Handbook of the art monuments in Alsace and Lorraine . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1973, p. 46.
- F. Rapp: Maximin II de Ribeaupierre et le pèlerinage de Dusenbach. In: Revue d'Alsace. Presses universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2002, pp. 193-204.
- Dusenbach, histoire et legends. Amis de Notre Dame de Dusenbach, Ribeauvillé 2004.
- Friedrich J. Ortwein: The Madonna of Dusenbach - patron saint of Rappoltstein . In: ders. (Ed.): Rappoltstein. 1905-2005. Locher, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-930054-50-7 , pp. 471–479 ( PDF ; 2.93 MB).
Web links
- Notre-Dame de Dusenbach near the Diocese of Strasbourg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry no. PA68000052 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ Une nouvelle de fraternité capucins au Dusenbach (Ribeauvillé) - Frères Capucins Province de France. Retrieved June 19, 2017 (French).
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '17.4 " N , 7 ° 17' 35.8" E