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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint Martin chapel of Sondersdorf, located in the Upper Rhine in the Grand East region, is a religious building whose origins date back to the 12th century. Mentioned as early as 1148, it was originally used as a parish church dedicated to Saint Martin, with an adjacent cemetery used until the 18th century. His history was marked by a major reconstruction between 1778 and 1781, ordered after a plan to demolish in 1770 for old age, but completed thanks to the intervention of the inhabitants and the new bishop of Basel. The renovation included elements such as a ceiling with painted caissons from the church of Saint Ulrich in Sondersdorf.

The site also houses a Marian pilgrimage attested since the seventeenth century, strengthening its spiritual role. From the medieval building, probably remain the large work and the Gothic coronation of a eucharistic cabinet, reused above the entrance. The chapel was restored in 1953 by local craftsmen (Gall de Colmar, Graff de Séletat, Jaeg de Strasbourg), after work carried out in 1951. Nearby was a hermitage, replaced by a forest house after 1935, as well as a missing cemetery.

Ranked a historic monument in 1995, the chapel is distinguished by its simple architecture: porch, flat bedside and roof campanile. Its wooden windows and furniture (such as the Eucharistic cabinet) illustrate its evolution between the Middle Ages and the modern era. Today, it is a communal property, embodying both an Alsatian religious heritage and a place of memory for Sondersdorf, marked by centuries of parish and devotional practices.

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