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Origin and history

The St.Wendelin Chapel of Mutzig, located in the Lower Rhine, is a religious building built in the second half of the 16th century, more precisely in 1566, as attests the vintage engraved on its western door. It was erected at the expense of the Landsberg family, whose coats of arms appear on the same door. Originally dedicated to the Virgin, it was then placed under the name of Saint Wendelin from the 18th century. Its location, at the western exit of Mutzig, near the national road and Rue de la Tuilerie, suggests a strategic position, perhaps linked to an old traffic axis or a communal boundary.

The architecture of the chapel reveals heterogeneous elements, reflecting several epochs. The nave, oriented and capped, has a western porch surmounted by an old hermit housing, accessible by a staircase. The choir, narrower and lower, features buttresses and a vault key decorated with a rosette, a vestige of a probable lost dogid vault. The bays date back to the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, with various styles (full hanger, segment arch). Inside, murals remain on the walls of the choir and the nave. The chapel was listed as a historical monument in 1977 after a period of abandonment, then restored in 1970 by friends of the Museum of Mutzig.

The western gate, dated 1566, has bent mouldings and the Landsberg weapons, spared during the Revolution by their concealment behind adjacent buildings, as confirmed by the cadastral plan of 1818. Another door, between the choir and the sacristy, carries marteled shields, probably staked after the Revolution. The sacristy, added in the 18th or 19th century, and the chamber of the hermit (occupied until 1870) testify to the functional evolution of the place. The chapel, a communal property since 1898, was acquired by the parish council before being preserved as a local heritage.

Architectural traces reveal successive changes: d'angle chains and collages suggest an enlargement of the nave, while 19th century windows partially replace older openings. The structural campanile, open on the roof, and the remains of vaults indicate an initially more complex structure. The restorations of the 20th century brought these elements to light, offering an overview of the turbulent history of this rural place of worship, linked to both local devotion and the seigneurial history of the Landsbergs.

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