Wildkirchli
The Wildkirchli consists of three caves and is located below the Ebenalp in Alpstein in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden . The Wildkirchli with the St. Michael chapel is on the list of cultural assets of national importance in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden .
history
The name Wildkirchli is mentioned for the first time by the St. Gallen reformer and mayor Joachim Vadian . In 1621 the monk Philipp Tanner founded a cave chapel in one of the 3 caves of the Wildkirchli, which the pastor Paulus Ulmann converted into a hermitage in 1658. It can be assumed that the alpine farmers of the Ebenalp had set up a small place of prayer in the cave long before Tanner. On the occasion of a visit to the Ebenalp, Tanner found a neglected prayer site. With the support of the Appenzell Innerrhoden authorities, he had a wooden altar and a wooden tower with a large cross built in front of the cave. The chapel was in the name of the Archangel Michaelconsecrated and should serve as a place of pilgrimage. After Tanner left Appenzell in 1624, the people of Appenzell forgot the chapel. It is thanks to the Appenzell pastor Paulus Ulmann that the caves were not forgotten again. In 1658 he was the first hermit to settle in Wildkirchli after he had given up his parish in Appenzell. Under Ulmann, the Wildkirchli developed into a popular place of pilgrimage for the Appenzell people. In 1679 Ulmann founded the Waldkirchlistiftung in order to keep the hermitage after his death. The foundation owned land in the vicinity of the caves, and the proceeds were used to support the maintenance of the buildings and the lives of the hermits. The foundation letter is in the possession of the State Archives Appenzell Innerrhoden. Up until 1853, around two dozen hermits lived permanently in the caves. When the hermit Anton Fässler fell fatally in 1853, the hermitage was given up. In 1860 the former accommodations of the hermits were replaced by today's Gasthaus Äscher (also Aescher). This is still owned by the Wildkirchlistiftung and is leased.
The tourist development of the Alpstein since the beginning of the 19th century soon moved the Wildkirchli into the center of the public. One of the earliest travelogues with the title The description of the mountain peoples in Switzerland comes from the year 1798 by the German travel writer Johann Gottfried Ebel . The first advertising views of the Wildkirchli came from the Swiss landscape painter Johann Baptist Isenring , who published his views from the Appenzell Mountains in 1830 . Here you can find two sheets with views of the Wildkirchli.
In addition to its narrower regional importance, the hermitage and cave chapel Wildkirchli also became known through the novel Joseph Viktor von Scheffels Ekkehard published in 1855 . The hero of the same name lived as a hermit on the Wildkirchli after a disappointed love affair.
In 1904, the St. Gallen natural scientist Emil Bächler found prehistoric finds by cave people such as worked stones, tools and bones in these caves . These can be traced back to the period from 50,000 to 30,000 BC. And prove that Neanderthals lived in the Alpstein Mountains at that time . The facts made the Wildkirchli world famous. In addition to these finds, traces of cave bears were also discovered that lived in the caves from 90,000 BC. Lived. The finds are exhibited in a hermit's house in 1972 in the Wildkirchli and in the Appenzell museum.
caves
The karst cave system consists of three cave parts with spacious passages. One part of the cave is continuous and has two entrances. This can be hiked through on a hiking trail. The cave system is located in the Schrattenkalk and has a total length of around 150 m.
One of the three caves was converted into an altar cave by hermits who lived in the caves from 1658 to 1853, which still testifies to the piety of the hermits and where masses are still celebrated today. The hermits lived in a second cave during the summer, and the Aescher-Wildkirchli mountain inn is now in the third .
photos
Prehistoric cave
Altar cave
Bell tower
Berggasthaus Aescher
View of Wildkirchli by JB Isenring, 1830
literature
- Emil Bächler : The Wildkirchli, the oldest prehistoric cultural station in Switzerland and its relationship to the Paleolithic settlements of man in Europe. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings. 41st year 1912, pp. 14–38 ( digitized version )
- Emil Bächler: The Alpine Paleolithic of Switzerland in the Wildkirchli, Drachenloch and Wildenmannlisloch. 1940.
- Elisabeth Schmid: To visit the W. caves. In: Bulletin of Swiss history for prehistory and early history. 8, 1977, pp. 2-12.
- Rainald Fischer: Wildkirchli. Ebenalpstock, Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 155). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1974, ISBN 978-3-85782-155-4 .
Web links
- Elisabeth Schmid: Wildkirchli. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Wildkirchli on the Ebenalpbahn homepage
- Spherical panorama from the Wildkirchli
Individual evidence
- ^ Letter of foundation for the Wildkirchli. In: zeitzeugnisse.ch. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Ebenalp Experience Wildkirchli Caves. In: Ebenalp.ch. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ^ Johann Gottfried Ebel: The description of the mountain people from the canton of Appenzell . In: The description of the mountain peoples of Switzerland . Leipzig 1798, p. 129 ff . ( e-rara.ch ).
- ↑ Johann Baptist Isenring: Views from the Appenzeller Mountains. St.Gallen 1830 ( e-rara.ch ).
- ↑ Joseph Victor von Scheffel: Ekkehard. A tenth century novel. Frankfurt am Main 1855 ( deutschestextarchiv.de ).
- ↑ Wildkirchli, Höhle im Alpstein (Schwende, AI) on data.geo.admin.ch
Coordinates: 47 ° 17 '5.3 " N , 9 ° 24' 54.4" E ; CH1903: 749511 / 238984