Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Chapel of the Child Jesus, called Herzog Chapel, was built in the 2nd half of the 19th century in Logelbach, a distance from Wintzenheim (High Rhine). Commissioned in 1855 by industrialists Antoine and Eugene Herzog, owners of a local factory, it was intended to offer a place of Catholic worship to workers who would otherwise have to go to Wintzenheim. The works, carried out according to the plans of the Parisian architect Johann van Soolen, began in 1860 and ended in 1862. In a neo-Gothic style, inspired by the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, it was originally dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin.

In 1886, a sacristy was added to the back of the choir, including a crypt containing the funeral vault of the Herzogs. In 1898, a project to transform into a public church, entrusted to architect Charles Winkler, was abandoned. The chapel became a place of pilgrimage to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux after 1925, when it was bequeathed, with its park, to the factory council of the new parish of Logelbach. The stained glass windows representing the Herzog family were destroyed during the war, and architectural elements (tower arrows, pinnacles) disappeared.

Ranked as a historic monument in 1984, the chapel is distinguished by its nave to a ship, its triangular apse choir, and its exposed brick vaults. The carved capitals illustrate plant or religious motifs (Jesus surrounded by the symbols of the evangelists). Two painted wooden statues adorn the stand, accessible by a sandstone staircase. Today in bad condition, it is no longer used for worship.

The building reflects the local industrial influence: the Herzogs, by financing its construction, marked their social and religious hold over Logelbach. Its architecture, combining pink sandstone and neo-Gothic details, bears witness to the aesthetic and symbolic ambitions of its sponsors, while meeting a practical community need for the workers of the nearby factory.

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