Religious heritage in the valley of Kaysersberg

Stone, a legacy from the past...

Stone has been worked here since the beginning of time. A succession of castles testifies to the strategic importance of the valley, such as that of Labaroche dating from the 11th century and those of Katzenthal and Kaysersberg dating from the 13th century.

The very independently-minded cities in Alsace fortify themselves while the powerful religious orders built convents and chapels such as the one at Kientzheim, Notre Dame des Pleurs, and the monastery of Marie-Médiatrice at Sigolsheim. Even the vine grower patiently erects his low walls on the slopes, carves a cross at a crossroads. The dry stone walls support from top to bottom the uneven ones in height and, on the sides, they also mark the layout of the limits between the plots. These low walls are invaluable small rural monuments to be preserved, with sometimes hundreds of narrow steps or a gate made of two megaliths. One also encounters them away from vineyards among pastures and forests, built with the same knowledge.

Roadside crosses...

In all traditions, obelisks, altars, stones or offerings have been erected and in the valley, at detours of pathways, at a crossroads or a pass, you will encounter crosses, treasures of naive popular art symbolizing Epiphany places of apparitions and revelations. Here are three amongst so many :

• The cross of the Cog Hardi between Lapoutroie and Le Bonhomme. The monolithic work cut in pink sandstone goes back to 1755. It represents at the top, a buckled angel’s head with wings and a round face with an open mouth as well as the Virgin and Saint John surrounding Christ on the cross, at the bottom.

• But also that of the Bermont Pass of bildstock type (column with images), one of most Cancian of the valley, it would date back to the 16th century. It watches over the Pass, crossing point from one valley to the next. Its base is very deep and they say the that the cross would have replaced the already existing monument, dedicated to Belenos a Gallo-roman divinity, equivalent of Mercury, the Roman god of thieves and travellers. Vestiges of the Roman road thus remain not far away, the site would have been formerly called "Mountains of Belenos" which thereafter, would have become Belmont, then Bermont.

• And finally, that of the Chamont Pass at the crossing of 4 roads, on the limit between Fréland and Lapoutroie. Today the path is impassable, is invaded by bushes and brambles. Christ is very small and completely worn close to a cherry tree turning his back on the path watching downwards over the valley.