Prince Heinrich Chapel
The Prince Heinrich Chapel is a 1957 m above sea level. A. located, small wooden chapel, which was built on a slight hill on Obstanser Boden, in the East Tyrolean Carnic Alps . It was built in memory of the front there during the First World War and especially of Major Prince Heinrich of Bavaria , who supported the Tyrolean Standschützen as commander of a battalion of the Bavarian body regiment .
history
The chapel was built in May 1916 by Austrian soldiers in a simple wooden construction with a shingle roof and bark cladding . After it became known that Prince Heinrich of Bavaria had fallen in Romania in November 1916 , the newly built chapel was named after him. The Austria section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club took over the maintenance of the chapel in 1928. 20 years after the construction of the chapel, it was completely renovated.
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Tyrolean struggle for freedom, the chapel was renovated again in 1959. This task was mainly carried out by boys of the Catholic rural youth and returnees from the Kartitsch community . A memorial plaque in the chancel , which had already become illegible due to the weather, was replaced by a wooden plaque with a picture of Prince Heinrich and an inscription. As in 1936, the East Tyrolean community bore the majority of the renovation costs. The remaining amount could be raised through donations from the local population. A mountain mass was held on August 30, 1959, at which the Prince Heinrich Chapel was blessed. The next renovation followed in 1971.
The former hut warden of the Obstansersee hut , Alois Goller, had the chapel rebuilt in 1987. The timber construction had suffered a lot from the weather. The master carpenter Josef Lusser was commissioned to build a new chapel based on the old model. The Austria Section, the municipality and the Kartitsch Tourist Association and voluntary donors paid for the costs. The current hut tenant family Bodner / Herrnegger donated a small bell for the tower. Furthermore, an artistic wooden cross by Helmut Bodner from St. Oswald was placed in the chancel. The wooden panel, which was renewed during the renovation in 1959, which in the meantime had become illegible again, has now been replaced by a copper panel with a picture and the same inscription. Based on the Kartitsch local group of the Austrian mountain rescue service, another memorial plaque was made in the same size and design to commemorate all Kartitsch mountain comrades who died in an accident. The blessing of the new chapel took place on August 16 this year during a mountain mass.
Current condition
The chapel, which is in good condition, is a popular excursion destination and also a resting place and memorial area. To the west of the Prince Heinrich Chapel, not far away, remains of the foundations of the middle station of the Winkeltal / Obstans war cable cars can be found. There are also remains of retaining walls and leveled stands of former buildings of the Obstans military camp.
literature
- Ludwig Wiedemayr: The World War II scene in East Tyrol. The communities on the Carnic Front in the eastern Puster Valley . Verlag "Osttiroler Bote", Lienz 2007, ISBN 978-3-900773-80-9 .
- Frieda Herrnegger: Tenant life on Obstans . Published in: Austria Zeitung , pages 7–8, issue 4, 2005.
Coordinates: 46 ° 41 ′ 44 ″ N , 12 ° 29 ′ 26 ″ E