Hometown Memories - History - Miracles - Church - Travel Photos

Warning: This is a long and rambling post:) - I intend to delete it by next Monday.

Prompted by Marianne's current photo theme (churches) at the Snap Happy photo group I looked through our travel photos from our Germany trip in 2008. It was Richard's first trip overseas and of course I wanted to show him my home town and in particular my favorite chapel.

The St. Maria - Mary's Chapel also called Gnadenkapelle (Chapel of Mercy)

The bell tower

It holds a special place in my heart.

 I remember playing in the church cemetery as a six to 10 year old.

... it was a short cut to the ice cream place:)

Most head stones

were made from sandstone

 from a local quarry.

 Skulls were a popular theme.

The largest monuments were for the two prominent families in town. 

Detail of the monument.

Family Crest

One of their modest country castles - Schloss Fechenbach - 

became a museum and cafe.

We sat on the veranda, I enjoyed my coffee and Richard had a brew.

The castle was built 1717 as a country estate, then restructured in 1860

 in the popular style of the day.

I have always loved this architectural style. Their grand ballroom with it's large windows, high ceilings, large mirrors and parquet flooring is a lovely place to get married. It's still used for musical evenings and parties. The other rooms are used as a museum.

On several occasions, my mom has met the last of the Fechenbach line, a shy, timid woman. Her brother was killed in WW I and her parents never got over it. She was raised to be a gentle woman, but times had changed. Her parents died early in an accident. Country gentry with no income, too poor to take part in the parties of the high and/or titled society, she was forced to sell her home in 1939. 

I vaguely remember meeting her as a kid, a slender woman in a black dress, proud bearing, doe eyes and porcelain skin. After I read 'Gone with the Wind' as a teenager, I fancied that she would have been fine, if she had a Tara to come to her rescue. 

A family portrait of the Fechenbach's is on display in the castle.

I digress - I know, that's what happens when you take a stroll down memory lane. 

My grandparents leased and ran a student pub - wine cellar in this castle.

So I had a quick look - the entry is still there .....

 The beautiful castle gardens from both family estates

 have become public parks - well loved and well used by the town population.

I have fond memories of my first real kiss in the pavilion here and taking walks in the park with the two most important men in my life. 

The park above, called simply the Schlossgarten or Castle Garden, was initially designed by a famous European garden designer at the end of the eighteenth century, around 1776 or so. To my delight, I found there are plans to re-design the garden in all it's old glory. I am looking forward to seeing it one day.

Anyway - back to the cemetery .....

No one has been buried there for a long time and when we visited I saw they had unearthed the last remaining gravestones and were installing them in the wall along the church yard as they often do in Germany.

My history teacher was the curator of the local museum and knew everything about our towns history. DIEBURG started out as a Roman garrison town, 2000 years ago, so there is an amazing amount of Roman artifacts found every time someone starts digging. History was Mr. Karst's life's passion.

Dieburg was infamous for it's witch hunts and hundreds of women and entire families were burnt at the stake, back around 1623 to 1629 and again in the 1640s. 

Already an old man, he still remembered the last time a suspected witch was held in the tower in Dieburg for questioning, back when he was a child in 1906.

The last woman accused of witchcraft and held there,

 mysteriously disappeared

 ... the case was dropped.

Hexenturm - (Witchtower)

What can I tell you, I come from what used to be a very conservative, uber-catholic town.

In the church yard of St. Maria's chapel: 

I remember the sadness I felt and how my heart ached when I looked at the stations of the cross which are arranged in a circle walk, each housed in sort of a mini temple, to show the suffering of Christ at each station. I wondered how people could be so cruel, I still do.

See one of the small display structures in the back?

The center pavilion with the stone carving of Maria holding her son as he was taken from the cross was always my favorite. 

I hate the new display they built next to the church for the original sandstone pieta. What an ugly contraption! What where they thinking?

I had to soothe and strengthen myself with a treat after seeing this monstrosity.

So I took Richard around the corner for homemade ice cream at the little kiosk (A kiosk is like a newspaper stand, which often sells everything from beer to lotto tickets, hot dogs to romance novels and of course candy for the kids:) I was really happy to discover they still existed and still made their fantastic home made ice creams - in fact, I think they've improved.

OK, now I'm ready

 to show you

 the interior of my favorite church.

 The chalk writing above the door is not uncommon. It is an annual blessing performed on the day of Epiphany and stands for C-Caspar, M-Melchior, B-Balthasar, the three kings that came to bring offerings to the Christ child.

They restored the ceilings since I've seen it last.

In my childhood the ceiling was white.

Someone about three centuries ago decided to paint over the decor. 

While I'm not crazy about the style either, I think it does look good.

I'm surprised it is a pattern of flowers (a curtain pattern actually) and no angels to be seen anywhere, french inspired no doubt, quite different from other church ceilings I have seen.

My pictures of the main and three side altars came out black, but here are a few detail shots.

Part of the main altar - side view.

I found it interesting that every one of the faces in the various statues

 were modeled after the people who donated the altar. 

This statue portrays Bishop Nikolaus - dated 1750

The ever burning light (sorry, I don't actually know the English term for it)

All catholic churches have a light that is always lit.

The pulpit, mostly used by guest speakers. 

The Organ - built by a local carpenter in 1759

One of the older - around the year 1100 - statues

 recently restored.

The real reason I like this church however,

is that there is something so powerfully spiritual present here,

 a perception of a presence, which cannot be explained with mere words.

I think it may have to do with the fact that

 this site has always been a spiritual place.

 This chapel is built directly above a Roman temple from around the year 200.

During one of the renovations

 they came across this wall art in the older part of the church.

This chapel underwent drastic changes every few hundred years. It has an unusual T-shape now and there have been several towers built and torn down again over the years. 

 I thought this decor was from around the year 900, but I checked wikipedia and it showed the year 836 as the time when it was still in the shape of a Roman style Basilica. I was close:) 

The wall painting was too old to restore completely,

 but they managed to restore it partially in a couple places.

There are doors and windows and strange cubbies which were bricked off over the centuries.

This little wall detail houses an ancient figurine (sacrament?). Judging by the sandstone surround, I'd guess it is an encasing from the middle ages.

 OK - wikipedia actually had a description, it's gothic - dated 1360

The glorious main altar consists of a pieta from 1420 

(which I have no picture of)

 It was actually painted over for centuries - imagine that.

The best guess is, that someone did this for protection, to keep the church from being ransacked during the thirty year war (1618-1648).

 So many people died, 2/3 of the population of Germany, that it was probably forgotten about.

Two centuries later, during a restoration project, they found marble and real gold underneath all that ugly paint.

Around the same time,

when the city of Dieburg was threatened by the Swedish army

a MIRACLE occurred.

Legend has it, that Mary descended from the heavens and

placed her cloak over the town

thus, Dieburg became invisible and was saved from the Swedish army.

It's possible that thick fog hid the city of Dieburg, because back then it was still heavily surrounded by swampy areas which results in fog.

Since that time the St. Maria chapel became the center of an annual pilgrimage with hundreds of people visiting the church for Mary's blessing.

As a child it was exciting to be out late at night and take part in the one nightly procession, halting and praying at all the religious stations (crucifix and statues)  in town. Carrying burning candles in the darkness made it a special event.

 I remember sitting by the open window, watching the procession of pilgrims from out of town arrive. Our yellow and white flags proudly displayed and flying high. It all culminated in one last Sunday Morning procession. 

One year I was chosen as one of the flower girls

 carrying a basket and strewing flowers right near the beginning of the procession. A proud moment for my Mom:)

I remember many, many pictures, crucifixes and personal stories up on the wall in this chapel, when I was a child. Near the side altar, where you can still light a candle for a loved one, or tell your troubles to Mary.

They have removed it all, but the candles - sad, if you ask me. Noone will:)

Nevertheless, I was happy to see all the wonderful restoration and renovation work that has been completed on

 "my" favorite chapel.

It was, is and always will be a special place.

My spiritual beliefs have changed over time, but my fascination with the           St. Maria Chapel  will never wane.

Let me share one last legend with you, which I had forgotten about, but was reminded of, when I thumbed through my history of Dieburg book.

 It was my favorite legend about this chapel when I was a kid.

A few hundred years ago, war raged all around Dieburg. It so happened that there lived a devout catholic gentle woman in Dieburg who came to the chapel every day to pray and talk to St. Maria, three times a day. 

She confided to St. Maria that she was reluctant to leave Dieburg to move to another country, she feared for the safety of the pieta and how she would sorely miss her daily visits to pray to and be consoled by St. Maria.

That day, she heard the voice of St. Maria speaking to her, telling her not to worry, she would accompany her on her trip.

When the marouders arrived the pieta was gone.

After the death of the gentle woman whose name shall forever remain a secret, the pieta mysterously re-appeared in the chapel.

Exterior niche on the side of the church building.

To me this chapel holds the spirit of the ages

 and I have always felt contemptuous of the "new", main church

 which I deem nothing, but pompous and cold.

By the way - new - means 1569.

THE END

Whew - I fervently hope this was halfway entertaining for you.

..... if not, thanks for looking anyway:)

Written and photographed by Rose H. - copyright 2009