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Origin and history

The Church of Saint Nicholas, located in La Croix-aux-Mines in the Vosges, is dedicated to the patron saint of miners, in connection with the exploitation of local silver mines. Nicknamed "silver chapel", it symbolizes the piety of the miners who financed its enrichment in the 16th and 18th centuries, a period during which mining activity was fast.

The first church, built in 1352 by the miners, leaves today only its square tower. In the 16th century, the rise of mines allowed the addition of altars, sculptures and paintings, as shown by the drawings of Heinrich Gross (1529), where the church appeared frequently. In 1784, a reconstruction expanded the building while retaining the original tower, thanks to the donations of parishioners and collective chores.

The furniture, classified as historical monuments, includes altars of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the high altar carved by J. Bailly (1733) or the altar of Saint Barbe, patron saint of miners. Major works, such as Deploration (XVIth century) or stained glass windows inspired by Gross's (1936-1945), illustrate art related to mining activity. The organ, restored in 1994, and the modern stained glass windows complete this preserved heritage.

The successive restorations (1868, 1978, 1993) and the protection by the historical monuments in the twentieth century kept this emblematic place. The ORGOCAM association, founded in 1985, is now working on its development, in collaboration with the town hall and the DRAC. The church remains a unique testimony of the alliance between faith and industrial history in Lorraine.

Among the remarkable elements, the Way of the Cross (1857), the stucco d'anges (1786) and the liturgical objects in silver copper highlight artistic richness. The stained glass, commissioned by Father Jules Didierlaurent, tells the mining history through Gross's drawings, while the painting of obits (18th century) recalls the local religious foundations.

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