Dusenbach

Dusenbach

Access

Located at a score of kilometers of Colmar, the pilgrimage of Dusenbach is accessible starting from old the Trunk road 416 (today RD 416) from Ribeauvillé which goes towards Holy-Marie-with-Mines. There exist also four forest roads which circumvent the pilgrimage. The first called " Sarassin" way; leaves from the western exit Ribeauvillé. Another way skirts the torrent, which passes beside the ruins of the first way of cross. When one leaves the hollow of this ravine, one sees with orée of wood the majestic overhang of the vault installed on a rock peak. Between the two ways, with middle height, the way of cross is built on the orders of the Raess canon. A fourth way was traced later. It leaves the trunk road 416 at the exit of Ribeauvillé and leads the pilgrim through vines and forests towards the sanctuary. One very sees in the passing not far from the places the ruins of the castles of the Girsberg, Ulrich and Haut-Ribeaupierre which overhangs the mountain and which is accessible after the sanctuary. Dusenbach comes from the name from a small torrent which skirts the shelter of the Pilgrims, the convent of the Capucins and the vault from Notre-Dame de Dusenbach. It is one of the pilgrimages most attended today in Alsace. The old charts mention Dusenbach under the name of " Dreykirch". One finds in particular this mention on the chart of Nicolas Sanson (Paris 1667). Ichtertsheim called it under the denomination of " Dreykirchen" .

History

The construction of the first vault

The legend reports that a hermit of passage in this picturesque small valley, located at the exit of Ribeauvillé and the road which goes towards the valley of Holy-Marie-with-Mines, not very far from the ruins of the Saint-Ulrich establishes a hermitage there. The area was indeed a ground of predilection for the interdependent ones seeking peace, far from the cities and in the shade of the forests to withdraw vanity and the cupidity of the men. This Ermite whose history did not retain its name built close to his retirement a martyrdom which the populations of the surroundings were not long in attending. It is also the time (1197) where the pope Innocent III asked Martin, abbot Abbaye of Pairis close to Orbey, to preach the crusade in Germany and in Suisse. Egelophe II of Ribeaupierre, Feudatory of the bishop of Basle, Lutholphe Roeteln, took a small army and a cross to leave to the conquest the holy places. One does not know exactly if Egelolphe II took share with the seat of Constantinople in 1204 then with the fifth crusade of Damiette, Egypt, in 1221. It is following one of these forwarding, that it brought back the East a statue of the Virgin, to thank the Madonna for having preserved the life to him and dangers incurred during its Holy Land tour. It made build in 1210 the first vault of Dusenbach and placed the invaluable statue there. After having taken part the fifth crusade with Jean de Brienne, king of Jerusalem in 1217 to take the control of Damiette, then in 1221 with the crusaders, and then with the Greeks, it lost half of its army. Wearied by the wars and the conquests and disgusted by all these slaughters, it was withdrawn in the small sanctuary of Dusenbach and lived there in Anachorète. He died piously in 1222. The historian and abbot Philippe André Grandidier claim that this one required to be buried in the sanctuary lately built. The statue of the Virgin of Dusenbach, thus goes back to highest Antiquity. It had already been before exposed with the veneration of faithful of the East then the faithful ones of Alsace, that the crusaders had wanted to withdraw from the Musulmans, the tradition reports, that as of the first days, of many miracles were announced, which did nothing but increase the fame of the places. Many faithful coming sometimes by far flowed in front of the miraculous statue.

The construction of a second vault

It is towards 1260 that Ulric II nephew and Henri I, wire of Egelolphe II, made set up one second vault, beside the preceding one. It was composed of two buildings opening one in another.

Construction of a third vault

Anselme the Bold one écroué with the castle of Achalm, in Souabe, to have to dare to defy the emperor Adolphe de Nassau, made a promise. In case where it would be released, it would make set up a news Chapelle in Dusenbach. It had been stopped during the insurrection of the town of Colmar against the emperor of Nassau in 1293 in which it took part in company of Walter Roesselmann, provost of Colmar. Little time afterwards, its worst enemy Adolphe de Nassau (1291 - 1298) will be killed on July 2nd 1298 with Worms and it is the son of Adolphe de Habsbourg, Albert who takes the changing. Laid out better than his/her father towards Anselme the Bold one, it releases it the day of the purification of Notre-Dame and returns all these goods to him. Allotting its release of February 2nd 1297 to the Virgin, it held her promise and made set up a third vault. It took again its bad habits however and started again to be devoted to hunting and the pleasures. One day, Anselme continuing a stag, this one made an extraordinary jump top of an enormous rock. The hunter did not have time to retain its Cheval which precipitated in the vacuum. The lord of Ribeaupierre left unscathed in his fall. This event is preserved in the collective memory under the name of the Jump-of-Stag, name which the rock carries still today where the event occurred. Anselme allotting its safety to the protection of the Virgin, and remembering the wish that it made during its imprisonment, immediately made do work in the third vault. He devoted himself then to a simple and peaceful life and died in 1314.

First destruction and restoration

Bad days prepared for the famous pilgrimage. The English have just gained important successes over the French Armies and the Prince Noir, made captive king Jean and imposed on overcome the Traité of Brétigny. In 1360, the pilgrimage was destroyed first once by avid English plunderers of spoils resulting from the " Large companies " after the Treated of Brétigny. The wars were done at that time with mercenaries, who once signed peace, were laid off without one being concerned with their future. Thus thousands of men were congédiés by the English. To get resources, the soldiers of the " large compagnies" forwardings and devastations exerted through all the France. Forty thousand of these adventurers, after having plundered all the septentrional part of the country, wanted to invade the grounds of the Great Elector of Trier, but were pushed back. They were folded back then on Alsace. May 15th 1365, the free cities of the Alsace concluded between them with Colmar a treaty from mutual defense in order to be guaranteed against this danger. But they reflect so much little eagerness to conclude this pact, that on July 4th 1365 the invaders under the control of their chief Arnaud de Cervole, known as the archpriest, invaded all the Alsace. For one month whole one assisted with scenes of armed robbery, with murders, rapes, peaceful inhabitants and profanations of churches. Jean de Lichtenberg, bishop of Strasbourg which lived at that time, was afflicted so much that he died of sorrow. The vaults of Dusenbach did not escape plundering. The statue of the Virgin disappeared at this time. Was it destroyed by the plunderers or setting safe from Bavaria by the lords of Ribeaupierre? Nobody knows it. When the emperor Charles IV forced the large companies to leave the country, the pilgrimage presented nothing any more but one cluster of ruins. Bruno Ier and Ulric VII of Ribeaupierre, faithful to the traditions of their ancestors, made hastily restore the pilgrimage in 1370 as of found peace

Transformation of the sanctuary

During second half of the XVe century, the sanctuary of Dusenbach will be renovated basic in roof. The vaults were primarily devoted to the worship of the Virgin Mary. Maximin II of Ribeaupierre added a way of cross reproducing to it the principal scenes of the martyrdom of the Christ. Maximin, that Annals of the Ribeaupierre represent us as a warrior fighter but a worthy servant of the Christian cause, undertook as of 1483 a pilgrimage in Holy Land. It was the time when any valid Christian, if it had the possibility and the means of them, was at least once in his life to visit the country sanctified by the birth and the death of the Christ. The lord of Ribeaupierre had forty-three years then. The caravan of which it formed part then counted several distinguished persons: Henri de Schauenbourg, Gaspard Zorn of Bulach, both Alsatian, Jean, count de Salm, Bernhard von Breydenbach, senior of the chapter of Mainz, Felix Fabri, Dominican with Ulm and Erhard Reuwich, celebrates painter of Utrecht which painted sights of the holy places during the voyage. Bernhard von Breydenbach, a rich person canon of the cathedral of Mainz, goes out of Holy Land to make penitence. He travels in company of Erhard Reuwich. He publishes in 1484 a Latin book in (and German) under the name of " Peregrinato in Terram Sanctum" who will be translated into several other languages. This work left is filled of details on the material conditions the pilgrimage where it describes the cities, areas and inhabitants which it cotoyés.

The pilgrims embarked with Venice on June 1st 1483 and traverse all the Judaea and returned by the Egypt after having visited the Mont the Sinai. They were of return to Venice on January 8th 1484. Maximin II wanted to perpetuate the memory of its voyage while reconstituting in Dusenbach the painful sequences of the Christ. The topography of the pilgrimage lent itself extremely well to the execution of the project. The narrow valley at the bottom of which the vaults rise resembled the wild ravine which separates the Jardin from the Olive-trees of the Mont Moria. The torrent which sprinkles it has the same impetuous course as Cédron at the time of the rains and the three small churches pointed out the three buildings which recovered the the Holy Sepulchre at that time. The noble pilgrim thus made carry out a first station with the foot of the rock on which the vaults are.

One saw the Christ there comforted by the angel in the cave, while with some steps from there the three apostles give up themselves with the sleep. These painted stone statues were preserved. One can still see them in the garden which is near the presbytery of Ribeauvillé. At the top of the rock and very close to the vaults was an odd tower of construction, from which the ruins disappeared. It was called the tower of the captivity. It represented the dungeon in which the Christ waited until the finishes of its crucifixion were finished. Concurrently to this one one saw an enormous rock split over all its length. This happy coincidence which pointed out the miraculous phenomena which were achieved at the time of dead of Christ, decided Maximin to place in this place the scene of crucifixion. The vault of the count Ulrich and Henri was transformed into the Holy Sepulchre. In the content, Maximin made carve out of stone the Christ lying in her tomb. All these sculptures extremely well carried out are to be placed among the models like the end of the 15th century. They are especially remarkably expressive. The date of the restoration of the pilgrimage of Dusenbach is sealed on the rock where one can still see the weapons of the lords of Ribeaupierre surmounted figure of the year 1494. A series of stations out of stones carved, placed on the road of Ribeauvillé in Dusenbach, supplemented the resemblance between the famous pilgrimage and the painful way of Jerusalem. The vault of Anselme also at that time accepted the name of tomb of the Virgin. In 1666 one placed two tables there representing death and the Assomption of the mother of the Christ. Towards 1494 was carved a statue still existence of Notre-Dame of the Martyrdom. The old image of Notre-Dame reported of Orient by Egelolphe had undoubtedly been destroyed. Maximin replaced it by a painful Vierge bearing in its arms the Christ detached of the cross. At that time, towards the end of the 15th century, the devotion with the painful Vierge had been established in the countries in consequence of the religious wars of the Hussites. The statue of the Vierge out of wood, high of fifty-three centimetres, is painted of a completion very quite neat. The expression of the pain and the calm resignation of the Virgin are greater beauty. It extends the left hand above broad and deep wound Christ as if it feared to touch the ravaged body. The broken heart of pain, the eyes in tears, it looks towards the sky. After the completion of the work undertaken by Maximin II, the sanctuaries of Dusenbach were more especially devoted to the worship of the painful Vierge and the passion of the Christ. This transformation of the pilgrimage increased even more its reputation. The faithful ones came there in greater number and Maximin constituted incomes in order to allow the establishment of two chaplains and two brothers assistants for the service of the vault. The Maximin piles died more than octogenarian on August 1st 1517 and was buried in the parish church of Ribeauvillé.

Second destruction and restoration

The Guerre Thirty Year old was fatal with the sanctuary. The Swedish of the general Gustaf Horn invaded and devastated all the Alsace. The town of Ribeauvillé, residence of Ribeaupierre which had passed to Protestantism, was saved. They were caught some particularly with the churches, convents and sanctuaries. Dusenbach was set fire to by the Swedes. The statue of the Vierge escaped the destruction however. The bag of the sanctuary had taken place in 1632, the statue was found in 1656, eight years after the meeting of the Alsace to the France. A chaplain undoubtedly or some piles pilgrim had dissimulated it in the hollow of one rock to the approach of the enemy troops. The tradition reports that a pious woman which one knows only the first name, Marie, discovered the hiding-place where the invaluable statue was. It devoted all its goods to the restoration of the vaults, which after a quarter century of abandonment, were concerned their ruins. The prince-bishops of Basle, Jean-Conrad de Roggenbach and Jacques Rinck, authorized the re-establishment of the worship and the pilgrims took again as a crowd the way of the small valley of Dusenbach. The engraving of Grandidier gives an idea of the restored pilgrimage and proves the meticulous respect and care that this pious woman to bring to rebuild primitive constructions. In 1656, one added to the old buildings a dwelling house in order to make it possible to the guards of the sanctuary to take care day and night near the miraculous Vierge.

Dusenbach and the habit of the ménétriers of Alsace

The lords of Ribeaupierre had contributed to increase the celebrity of the pilgrimage of Dusenbach by choosing it like sponsors association of the Ménétriers of Alsace, of which they were the guards. The emperor of Habsbourg, Frederic III, had authorized in Guillaume Ier and his brother Maximin II of Ribeaupierre the right of justice and taxes on the players of instruments of Alsace between the Rhine and the Vosges. The brotherhood of Ménétriers is thus controlled by the Lords de Ribeaupierre with whom them artists must n the other hand pay a size of their protection. The ménétriers and the jugglers had to suffer during the Moyen-âge from the mockeries on behalf of the people, but also from the Church which regarded their manners as dépravantes. They trained a caste with share. Wishing to get rid of this bad image, they formed a respected association, the musicians of Alsace and placed their corporation under the high patronage of the Lords de Ribeaupierre. The Ribeaupierre hastened to agree to take under their control the ménétriers. It is with the title of King of the ménétriers that Ribeaupierre obtained this title which will be transmitted hereditarily in their family. Under the statutes deposited on March 16th 1606 with the brotherhood of the musicians by Eberhard de Ribeaupierre, each one of the latter was to carry in the public exercise of its art a silver medal to the effigy of Notre-Dame de Dusenbach. Any infringement with the rules of association was punished of a wax or silver fine with the profit of the sanctuary of Dusenbach. The musicians were to go, the feastday of their brotherhood on September 8th, with Ribeauvillé and to attend a mass called to the pilgrimage. They were still held to sanctify all the festivals of their protective while being confessed, as a communicant and making alms. Lastly, the chief of association offered to the vaults of Dusenbach a candle of a considerable weight the day of the general meeting. These rules, inspired by a sincere and lit piety, contributed much to popularize, the worship of Notre Dame de Dusenbach. The ménétriers who traversed all the country told everywhere the graces obtained by the intercession of the Virgin and, until the Revolution, the veneration of Alsatian for the antique sanctuary was always increasing

The brotherhood Maria Raydt

Another brotherhood, whose origin goes back to mists of time, and who crossed the vicissitudes of the Réforme and the Révolution, was also placed under the protection of Notre Dame de Dusenbach. One named this brotherhood Maria Raydt, Marie of the help or the assistance. One finds acts notarial establishing his existence with Ribeauvillé as of 1392. The brotherhood had a double goal: glorifier God and the Blessed Virgin and to assist from its members in their need spiritual and temporal. Regular contributions were taken with this intention. The associates of Raydt committed themselves requesting the ones for the others, to accompany the priest carrying the Viatique saint with the patients, to celebrate in large pump solemnities of the Vierge, especially that of the assumption. The principal festival of the festival of the Brotherhood was placed the day of the Assomption. It receipt the name of the festival of the Honors of Notre Dame. During festivals of the Virgin, the brotherhood went in procession until the pilgrimage of Notre Dame de Dusenbach. The brotherhood undertook inter alia burial her members and made celebrate masses for the late ones. When Reidt-Clocke (Bell of Association), announced the death of one of their member, all the associates were immediately to request for the late one. Association managed also an account which was intended to come from there to assistance, that is to say in kind or out of money, to the patients and with the poor ones. The case of the company also could agreed of the loans of money to the members who presented sufficient guarantees. This brotherhood exists still nowadays with Ribeauvillé. However the Révolution seized all the goods to him which enabled him to assist from the unhappy one. She exists today only in the form of an association of prayers. There exists still today a path which leaves since the sanctuary and which bears the name of the brotherhood.

Third destruction during the Revolution

The Revolution of 1789 with have harmful effects on the pilgrimage. As of 1791, the directory ordered the closing of the sanctuary and the demolition of the vaults to the pretext which the parish church was abandoned. The parish was then managed by a priest swearer and the inhabitants of Ribeauvillé went in sign of protest Sundays to the sanctuary of Dusenbach which continued to be still served by monks faithful to Rome. An engraving representing the state of the vaults at that time gives in French and German the following explanation: “ True Representation of the public prayers held by the inhabitants of the catholic community of Ribeauvillé Sundays and festivals in front of the Chapelle of Notre Dame de Dusenbach, in time that the Churches of the aforesaid the city and the aforementioned vault were closed. Drawn according to nature on September 25th 1791 ”. These indications let suppose that the faithful ones continued to attend Dusenbach even after the translation of the statue of the parish church. The vaults of the pilgrimage were soon classified among the goods to sell with the profit of the nation. This measurement was all the more surprising that the Apostasie Lords of Ribeaupierre, and especially since the devastation of the sanctuary by the Swedish, the town of Ribeauvillé was regarded as the principal owner of the places. Share-taken Directoire did not take account of its right and in 1792 the vaults and their properties were sold. However the new owners, Johan Ignace Butz and David Ortlieb hesitated to demolish the vaults. The veneration of the inhabitants and the steps of the municipality, united with their own scruples, their made delay the recommendations of the Directory. March 19th 1794, these orders became so imperative and Terror, arrival with its apogee, did as well victims, as it was necessary to obey. The large church of 1760 was shaven. March 25th, 1794 the vaults and the pilgrimage are destroyed. The other buildings, were destroyed only with half and until in lately one still saw large sections of wall which were respected at the time of the last restoration of the building. In 1810 the first purchasers are expropriés and the resale of the ruins of Dusenbach is entrusted to Jacques Domler who repurchases the whole during a sale by order of the court.

Rebuilding of Dusenbach in 1894

The ruins of the pilgrimage of Dusenbach were resold in 1810 following the expropriation of their first purchasers. Of 1817 with 1836 the totality of the ruin belongs to Jacques Domler and his daughter until the death of the latter. It is then in 1836 that the vine grower Gregoire Owaller acquires the ruins following a contract returned on October 4th 1836. Of 1837 with 1876, they become the property of Mr. the abbot Aloyse Hiss of Ribeauvillé. It was initially cleaned of Hunawihr, entered the order of Saint Dominique. Thus the ruins became property of this kind. A captain in retirement, Joseph Wuhrer, the receipt on November 2nd 1876. The ruins had become a place of walk for the inhabitants of the city and the tourists of passage attracted by the beauty of the landscape and the picturesque situation of the ruins in this solitary small valley. For many faithful remainders of the vaults always formed still a center of pilgrimage. One often saw Sundays and the feastdays, of piles pilgrims to go up in Dusenbach and to request at the place where during several centuries of the men had come to collect itself to beseech the Vierge. Young workers of Ribeauvillé went Sundays early to recite the chain with the right in the middle of the ruins before going to the parish church to receive there the Blessed Sacraments. It is in 1892, that monseigneur Fritzen bishop of Strasbourg of 1891 to 1919 evokes the first time the idea to restore the sanctuary. It had read the book of Juvenalus Montanus: Schreckenszeit im Elsass (terror in Alsace) where the author Dr. Kehrein, German priest expelled by Kulturkampf of his native land devoted a broad chapter to the famous pilgrimage. Of passage to Ribeauvillé, the bishop expressed the desire to visit the ruins and it was enchanted so much by the beauty of the place which it made at once start of the negotiations with the Wuhrer captain and bought little time after the site of the vaults. Mister the abbot Aimé Raess was named meanwhile cleaned Ribeauvillé and Monseigneur Fritzen stated to him that he would see the antique sanctuary with pleasure reappearing of his ruins. It was one demolished to raise and a company with enormously of difficulties of surmounting. But the priest of Ribeauvillé accepted with joy this proposal, in spite of the difficulties which it provided. He pulled up his/her socks and went to carry the good news in the common neighbors in order to collect the required funds with this vast company of rebuilding. He also succeeds in associating with his project of generous givers, the companies and of course of many anonymities. Rather considerable sums thus could be joined together to make it possible to begin work. Mr Winckler, architect, were charged to restore the vaults in the style and the proportions of the old pilgrimage. It extremely well succeeded in returning in Dusenbach its original aspect. It made use primarily of the old drawings and engravings that the pilgrimage left thus respecting a tradition several times secular. Among the communes whose generosity contributed more to work, it is necessary to quote Ribeauvillé which took share with greatest part the, Bergheim, Saint-Hippolyte, Rorschwihr, Roderen, Hunawihr, Guémar, Zellenberg, Gueberschwihr and Kaysersberg. Many foreign givers at the town of Ribeauvillé offered their mite for the rebuilding of the sanctuary. Benefactors undertook to finance the stained glasses. Thanks to all these good wills, the pilgrimage of Dusenbach could find its antique splendor. Mister the Raess priest of Ribeauvillé, made build and arrange the broad way which leads to the sanctuary. The domanial administration of the forests, without giving up the property of the field, gave the authorization necessary to its construction and undertook not to divert it its destination. The inhabitants of the three appendices, Bilsteinthal, the Large one and the Small Glassmaking, established the way over a 200 meters length. This way finished in spring 1894 was used for the inauguration of the rebuilt pilgrimage. Well later one built the secondary Road D 416 which starts from Ribeauvillé until Sainte Marie-with-Mines with a junction until Aubure.

The inauguration of the pilgrimage

May 15th 1894, monseigneur Fritzen announced in a pastoral letter the reopening of the pilgrimage of Dusenbach and invited the faithful ones to attend with the translation of the miraculous Vierge and the blessing of its new sanctuary. Those took place on June 10th. Alsace had hardly attended such an imposing demonstration and also moving. Without reference to worship the inhabitants of Ribeauvillé had avoided their houses with a perfect taste. Everywhere garlands and flowers papered the walls top in bottom. Six imposing triumphal arches followed one another in the main street. As of the day before at the evening the mayor of Ribeauvillé, accompanied by the municipal council and clergy by the city and surroundings, had gone to the meeting held on the five prelates who came to attend solemnity. They was Mgr Fritzen, bishop of Strasbourg; Mgr Marbach, auxiliary bishop; Mgr Korum, bishop of Trier; the T.RP. Motschi, abbot miter of Notre Dame of Pierre, and the T.R.P. Francois, abbot of the Abbey Notre-Dame d' Oelenberg. The following day, at the first hours of the day, of innumerable cars arrived of all the directions. There was of all the forms and all dimensions, since the elegant crew to the humble scale car furnished with foliage. On all the roads leading to Ribeauvillé of the groups of pilgrims and piles canticles sang requested. Many special trains brought crowd collected. One can without exaggeration estimate from 20 to 25.000 the number from run abroad at Ribeauvillé for this unforgettable solemnity. The festival started with a great pontifical mass celebrated in the parish church by Monseigneur Fritzen, while the chorus of the great seminar carried out a mass To haul. Already the interminable procession started to proceed in the streets of the city. The parishes of the surroundings and six bodies of music took share with their banners there. Then came a clergy many and after him the prelates surrounding the statue of the Vierge carried by twelve deacons who belonged themselves to half an hour in half an hour. Behind them a crowd innumerable and collected pressed itself. At 11 a.m. and half, the vault was bénite by Monseigneur Marbach. Then the T.R.P. Francois, abbot of Oelenberg, celebrated the first mass which was known as since the Revolution. It was midday when Monseigneur Korum went up in the pulpit which one had established opposite the small valley. Seldom a speaker had the honor to speak with such a dense crowd. Seldom the people of Alsace could hear a as strong and convincing word as that which did of the bishop of Trier. Monseigneur Korum compared the joy of the pilgrims in this beautiful day with that of Hebrew when they returned in the rebuilt temple of Jerusalem. He expressed the love of the Alsatian catholics for the places so worthy which the devotion of their ancestors and the graces obtained by their prayers sanctified. Crowd entonna then Grosser Gott that the six musics accompanied and the effect of this canticle in the middle of this marvellous landscape was really imposing and seizing. It was as with regret that crowd withdrew itself carrying the EC unforgettable softest day and the most beneficial memory. The very same day of the festival, Monseigneur the bishop of Strasbourg named honorary canon Mister the abbot Aimé Raess, senior of Ribeauvillé. To 3 p.m., the municipality offered to its hosts distinction a banquet with the town hall, and entire the Ribeauvillé evening brilliantly illuminated the honor of Notre Dame de Dusenbach whose sanctuary received the first pilgrims.

Various constructions after the inauguration of the pilgrimage

After the inauguration of the pilgrimage, the Raess canon tackles to build along the path bordered of rocks, which goes in Dusenbach a way of cross. It is the Meyer house of Munich which provides the reliefs of the stations of which each one forms a vault. Completed work, the way of crosses is blessed on June 24th, 1896 by the bishop of Strasbourg assisted of very the reverends abbots of Oelenberg and Notre-Dame of Pierre and approximately 80 priests. Very the reverend Francois, father abbot of Oelenberg, in the open air gave the sermon in front of an huge crowd. In 1921 and 1922 have made restore the vaults of the stations and repaint the reliefs by Mr. Paul Brutschi de Ribeauvillé. The large church was built and decorated high altar by Mister the Raess canon. Mgr Fritzen has it bénite on September 8th, 1903. Since, one put new windows at it and one built the vaults and the platform for the organ; those come from the house Kriess de Molsheim. The church was devoted on October 6th, 1912 by Mgr Zorn de Bulach, bishop auxiliary of Mgr Fritzen. The reliefs of the side furnace bridges are the work of the young Alsatian artist Mr. Schaeffer, native of Huttenheim. They represent, one the death of saint Joseph, the other the appearance of the Jesus child to saint Antoine de Padoue.

The statue of the Holy-Virgin

to the beginning of the XIIIe century, Egelophe brought back crusade a statue of the Vierge. According to certain assertions it was an Eastern icon. Others locate its origin in Lorraine. In 1475 one mentions two statues of the Virgin with Dusenbach, of which one carried a crown. At the end of the XVe century one does not speak any more but about the statue currently venerated with the pilgrimage. It is a statue in boix polychrome, high 53 centimetres. The Virgin is in sitting position, on her knees it holds the inanimate body of the Christ gone down from the cross. The cross feet as its right hand fall to ground. Its left arm is posed on that of the Virgin. Work is remarkable by the elegance of work, the beautiful expression of the face and the completion of the hands of the Virgin. She is allotted to a sculptor of Ribeauvillé, mentioned in the files of the city, in 1498, under the name of Laurentz, artist sculptor, and indicated in the acts under the title of honourable Master. One knows nothing precis about the first image. For the moment one can only limit oneself to assumptions.

Capuchins

After its construction in 1220, the monitoring of the places was entrusted to two brothers. The priests only placed there very seldom and for little time, as a payment established for the brothers Hans Kirsener and Hans in 1503 mentions it. They lived downtown and went up to Notre-Dame de Dusenbach for the offices at the days and fixed hours. During their presence with Ribeauvillé the fathers augustins ensured the ministry regularly. On a proposal from Mister the canon Raess, Mgr Fritzen called the fathers capuchins like serving pilgrimage of Dusenbach. The first fathers arrived on April 3rd, 1904. They reflect a new stage on the contiguous house with the vaults, which had been used up to that point as dwelling to the sexton. It is interesting to raise that the capuchins ensured already before the Revolution, temporarily, the ministry with Dusenbach. A relation of the bishop of Basle, presented to Rome on October 26th, 1684, mentions the apostolic activity of the fathers capuchins in Dusenbach for the feastdays.

Principal benefactors

The largest benefactor of Dusenbach was the canon Aimé Raess, priest-senior of Ribeauvillé. It is him which restored the pilgrimage, which made build the vaults, the large church and the way of cross. He left most of his fortune. Its portrait is at the entry of the sanctuary of the Painful Virgin. Born with Sigolsheim, on November 10th 1844, it was ordered priest in 1867. During several years, he worked as missionary with the the Indies, Pondichéry. Forced by the disease to turn over to Alsace, it was named cleaned of Gueberschwihr and became in 1893 priest-senior of Ribeauvillé. He died the 7 févier 1905. Its body rests with Ribeauvillé screw-with church. Among the other benefactors of Dusenbach, one can quote the abbot Lorentz Jacques, who contributed especially to the embellishment of the vaults and the large church. Born with Bergheim, on May 22nd 1842, ordered priest in 1865, it was cleaned of Herschbach then to Breitenbach, where it built the church. Withdrawn in Bergheim, he died on June 5th 1921.

Pilgrims

The bishops of Strasbourg, Mgr Fritzen and Mgr Ruch had the honor to go to the sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin. April 9th 1919 the general Henri Joseph Eugene Gouraud (1867 - 1946) made with his family the pilgrimage of Dusenbach. The number of the pilgrims increases each year. Every year one sees in Dusenbach of many associations of young people, men of young girls, children. May 6th 1923, Before guard of the the Rhine led in pilgrimage to the feet of the Virgin thirteen hundred young men. To facilitate the pilgrimage, the Fathers Capuchins built 1912 with 1913, despite everything kinds of difficulties, a shelter for the pilgrims. June 9th 1919, one celebrated the 25e birthday of the rebuilding of the vaults. Mister the Fahrner canon, general vicar and superior of the Sisters of Divine Providence gave the sermon. In 1921 took place the 7th centenary of the beginning of the pilgrimage. By three times the sanctuaries were destroyed and three times they were rebuilt more alive and more attracting that never thanks to the abnegation and tenacity of some famous characters and the pilgrims.

The maintenance of the way of cross of Dusembach

Because of prolonged exposure of the way of cross to the bad weather, the hillocks of the martyrdom will require regular talks. In 1917 the 12th station is renovated and in 1932 the statue of Jean Saint is replaced victim of the bad weather. One also replaces towards 1947 the cross in solid oak of the 12th station. Then in 1947, the Célestin brother decided to give a new architecture to the stations. The walls and sandstone the stones of the the Vosges are replaced by the Bina company of Ribeauvillé, while that the painter Weiss undertook to renovate paintings. The brother Florent capuchin who succeeded the Célestin Brother completed this important work. Between 1978 and 1980 certain paintings will be again taken again. The restoration of the stations was again undertaken between 2001 and 2004 on the initiative of the Brother Bernard Picard responsible for the sanctuary which receives the support of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Dusenbach.Les frames and the roof of the martyrdoms were strongly damaged by the age and the Lothar hurricane of December 26th 1999, are repaired. The painting of the characters is carried out by Didier Staebler an artist of Strasbourg. This operation is carried out thanks to the good will of many voluntary which takes part in work, but also with the many givers who finance the renovation project as with the sponsors who support this operation. These new stations are inaugurated in September 2004 in the presence of the archbishop of Strasbourg, Monseigneur Joseph Doré. Each year during the period of the Lent, the pilgrims meet Sundays in great number to take part in the exercises of the Way of Cross.

Ex-votos

The many Ex-votos, plates of marble at the entry of the vault, testify to miraculous facts and express testimonys of recognition of faithful, for the graces, cures and protections allotted to Notre Dame de Dusenbach.

Sources

Whole or part of this article is extracted from a plate of 32 pages carried out by the pilgrimage of Dusenbach in 1924 pennies the title " Notre Dame de Dusenbach" The pilgrimage, its origin and its history with 7 engravings. The article could be modified since.

There exists with the Departmental records of Haut-Rhin a Dusenbach bottom in the files E 2722 and 16 G which cover the periods of 1483 with 1529 under the reign of Maximin II (or Smassmann).

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