St. Michaels Chapel (Rigi Kaltbad)
The St. Michael rock chapel is a Roman Catholic chapel on Rigi Kaltbad in the municipality of Weggis in the canton of Lucerne . The structure at 1400 m above sea level. M. belongs to the Weggis Corporation and became a popular pilgrimage site due to a legend . Together with the chapel in the Rigi-Klösterli, the cold bath with its water source marks the beginning of tourism on the Rigi .
history
First chapel
Around 1540 Bartholome Joler from Weggis is said to have been healed while taking a bath on the Rigi. At this point the church members of Weggis built a first brick chapel around 1556. It was consecrated on May 20, 1585 by Balthasar Wurer , the titular bishop of Ascalon , the Archangel Michael .
A wooden plaque attached at that time described events that, according to legend , should have happened at the time of King Albrecht of Austria around 1300. Three pious sisters had withdrawn into this wilderness to escape violent governors who tried to kidnap them. There they would have lived a holy life. After the death of the last of the three sisters, a spring with healing water is said to have risen.
The legend, which was spread around 1600 by Renward Cysat from Lucerne, for example , takes up Christian notions of groups of three women . Many pilgrims sought healing in the early modern times by bathing in cold water that was led into a trough. Hence the name Kaltbad comes from. Around 1700, the first simple inn was built not far from the chapel, and in 1756 the Lucerne government granted it the right to tavern .
Second chapel
In 1779, Ammann Justus Zimmermann had the first chapel demolished and a new building built in its place by master builder Jakob Singer , which was inaugurated in 1784. Zimmermann was the first chaplain elected by the corporation to take care of the maintenance. In the early 19th century, probably from 1821, the canton of Lucerne employed a chaplain who was responsible for pastoral care during the opening hours of the spa house in summer. A chamber for the clergy was imposed on the buyers of the hostel as a servitude .
In the chapel at the time testified votive offerings to the Mother of God of the popular piety . In 1904, the 34 panels that had been installed since 1753 were removed during a renovation. Some of them later came to the Weggis corporation archive. At the end of the 19th century, three marble plaques were placed in the chapel to commemorate foreign visitors. Only one remains , the one for Julius von Tresckow (1811–1881).
From 1939 onwards, an agreement between the Weggis parish and the Swiss province of the Capuchin Order enabled year-round pastoral care on Rigi Kaltbad. A foundation created a hermitage for the pastors on land donated by the corporation. In 1970 Rigi Kaltbad became the chaplain of the Weggis parish.
In addition to the weekly Sunday service, the rock chapel is now often used for weddings and baptisms. It was inaugurated on September 27, 2015 after renovation work by Bishop Felix Gmür .
Furnishing
In the tabernacle is the miraculous image , a late Gothic Madonna with child from around 1500, and above it a statue of the Archangel Michael. In earlier times, the image of grace was a magnet for pilgrims, along with the legend of the three sisters noted on a wooden board. The Madonna is the work of an unknown artist.
On the left front wall of the ship is the baroque figure of St. Laurentius , on the right is the shepherd's patron Wendelin . In the 20th century the windows were decorated with four glass paintings . One of them, painted in 1950 by the Uri painter Heinrich Danioth , shows Niklaus von Flüe . The other pictures show the Mother of God with child, Christ and the unbelieving Thomas as well as St. Christopher .
literature
- Anton Michael Bucher (Ed.): The Chapel of Rigi-Kaltbad . Home books Rigi-Süd, volume 1 . Vitznau 1979.
Web links
- St. Michael rock chapel on the Rigi Bahnen AG website
- St. Michael rock chapel, virtual tour of the chapel , portrait on the Lucerne Maritime Parishes website
- Properties: Felsenkapelle St. Michael , on the website of the Weggis Corporation
Coordinates: 47 ° 2 '38.2 " N , 8 ° 27' 49.2" E ; CH1903: six hundred and seventy-seven thousand eight hundred ninety-six / 210832