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Origin and history

The chapel of pilgrimage Our Lady of Schauenberg, located in Pfaffenheim in the Upper Rhine, has its origins in the early fifteenth century. The site, mentioned in 1334 as Schowenberg, housed a hermit named Uldaric venerating Saint Ulrich in a modest chapel. Around the middle of the 15th century, the place became a pilgrimage dedicated to the Virgin, officially recognized in 1483 by the Bishop of Basel. The increasing crowd of the faithful imposed the construction of a larger chapel in 1515, followed by a new expansion in 1685 under the supervision of the Franciscans of Rouffach.

In the 17th century, the pilgrimage gained popularity, attracting processions from Pfaffenheim and nearby cities like Turckheim. The Franciscans, responsible for managing the site from 1704 onwards, built a convent there and consolidated its role as a Marian centre. The present chapel, consecrated in 1695, preserves elements from the 16th and 17th centuries, including a flat-side choir and a three-sided apsidiole. The site, closed in 1789 and restored several times, has been listed as historical monuments since 2000.

Two legends mark the history of the Schauenberg: that of Anne of Saxony, allegedly miraculously healed in 1446 after a prayer to the Virgin (although this story, reported by Franciscans in the eighteenth century, lacks contemporary sources), and that of the Devil's Stone, linked to the reconstruction of 1515. According to the latter, the Devil attempted to destroy the chapel by throwing a rock, which would have bounced without harm through divine intervention. A stone marked with traces below perpetuates this story.

Architecturally, the chapel combines local materials (stoneware, wood for the campanile) and various stylistic elements, such as a broken triumphal arch and foothills marked with taskron symbols (M, T, II, +). The adjacent convent building, rebuilt in the 20th century, bears witness to the evolution of the site, past hermitage instead of organized devotion. Successive restorations (1860–69, 1910, 1966–1972) preserved its historical character, despite troubled episodes such as sale as a national property in 1793 or damage to 1870.

The pilgrimage, centered around a statue of the Virgin (fled in 1991 after a replacement in 1575), reflects the importance of Marian worship in Alsace. The processions, sometimes obligatory for the inhabitants of Pfaffenheim, and the offerings illustrate its anchoring in local religious life. Today, the chapel remains a testimony of five centuries of devotion, between attested history and oral traditions.

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