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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Michel and its ossuary, located in Kaysersberg Vineyard in the Haut-Rhin, is a religious building rebuilt in 1463 against the wall of the second expansion of the city (first half of the 15th century). It replaces an older structure, probably linked to the primitive cemetery transformed into a lapidary museum. Its architecture combines an elevated chapel, vaulted with multi-ribbed warheads, and a semi-subsoil ossuary accessible by two doors in the middle of the hangar. The west and south walls are reinforced with foothills, while the north wall incorporates an old round road, vestige of urban fortifications.

The vaults of the chapel and ossuary preserve murals dated from the beginning of the sixteenth century, with Gothic inscriptions (1469 on a warhead, 1514 in the ossuary). A missing inscription reminded the equality in death between masters and valets. The ossuary, partially occupied by bones transferred when the cemetery was moved in 1511, also served as a place of worship for the offices of the dead. The original structure, reworked but preserved, has dovetail assemblies and saw teeth, while a restoration attested in 1854 (architect D. Poisat, sculptor E. Meigret) left an epigraphic trace.

Ranked a historic monument in 1967 (after a first inscription in 1922), the chapel illustrates the evolution of funeral practices and Gothic art in Alsace. Its location at the edge of the medieval enclosure, backed by ramparts, underscores its role in the collective memory and defensive planning of Kaysersberg. The unidentified coat of arms on the vault keys and painted decorations testify to an anonymous local patronage today, while the chapel/ossuary duality reflects the coexistence of the living and the dead in the sacred space.

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