Vault of Heidenkirche
The vault of Heidenkirche is located in the Commune Frenchwoman of Butten and the department of the the Low-Rhine. The site occupies a rock headland with the locality Katzenkopf , in the communal Forêt of Butten, in the middle of the the Vosges of North.
History
Because of its isolated character, the building is often regarded as being a Chapelle, but it acts in fact of the parochial church of the Village disappeared from Birsbach. It is at the end of the 15th century that one locates the abandonment of the Village, whereas that of the church is located towards 1650, during the introduction of the Protestant Réforme into the sector of Butten and Ratzwiller.
The name of Heidenkirche would indicate a primitive church going up to the first centuries of the Christianisation of the area. It is dedicated to the holy apostle Mathias. After the Réforme introduced towards 1560 the vault is abandoned. Before 1914, the pilgrims of passage in this place deposited an offering in the old trunk of a beech which pushed in the middle of the nave in ruin, in order to serve the beggars who would pass in the vicinity. The vault was rebuilt by the abbot Hemmerter, priest of Lorentzen, in 1954.
Excavations undertaken in 1911 - 1912 gave off the carved foundations and some stones. Those, also made it possible to define true dimensions of the building. It was composed of a long Nef 14 m and broad of 7,40 Mr. the chorus of square form of 4,70 side m was elevated. The western frontage was prolonged in north and the south by a thick wall which made it tower of the nave and the chorus. This wall was also equipped with loopholes letting think that the church was strengthened. Nowadays the church remains the only witness of Birsbach, letting discover a splendid Gothic gate .
The building is classified historic building since the September 5th 1996 and since 1999, an estival spectacle is held there in July - August. ----