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Origin and history

Feldbach Convent, located in the Upper Rhine, is a former priory of Benedictine nuns founded in the 12th century under Cluny's obedience. A charter of 1145 confirmed its creation by Count Frédéric I of Ferrette, who placed it under the protection of Saint James the Major. The priory, endowed with a church with three functions (conventual, comtal and parish necropolis), became a place of pilgrimage dedicated to the Virgin of Pains from the 15th century. The convent buildings, located north of the church, and the prior's house to the south, testify to his medieval spatial organization.

Over the centuries, the priory suffered vicissitudes related to the conflicts and floods of Feldbach. Fired in 1466 by Basel troops, then abandoned during the Rustaud War (1525), he perished after the joining of Ferrette County to the Habsburgs in 1324. The nuns took refuge in Basel, and the church, rebuilt in 1541, passed successively to the Jesuits of Ensisheim (1636) and to the Royal College of Colmar after 1773. The priory disappeared in 1790, but the church, classified as a historical monument in 1898, remained a parish building marked by major restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The church architecture, homogeneous and dating from the end of the 12th century, mixes Burgundian and Alsatian Romanesque influences. Its columns with carved capitals (foils, animals), absids in cul-de-four and subsequent modifications (surmountations of the soil, destruction of absidioles, addition of a neo-Roman bell tower in 1910) reflect its evolution. The restoration campaigns, notably those of Charles Winkler (1887-1889) and the years 1966-1977, attempted to regain its primitive appearance, while preserving traces of its turbulent history, such as the foundations of the wall separating the choir from the nuns of the nave of the laity.

The Feldbach convent also illustrates the religious and political dynamics of the region. First linked to Ferrette's family, he went under Austrian control, then French after 1648. His parish role, confirmed by the Bishop of Basel as early as 1168, and his Marian pilgrimage make it a central place for the local community. The recurrent floods (1721, 1834) and the liturgical adaptations (transformation of the crucifixes into sacristy) underline its anchoring in the Sundgau landscape and daily life.

Today, the church of Saint-Jacques, the only vestige of the priory, preserves remarkable Romanesque elements, such as ground oculi of the nave or capitals with zoomorphic decorations. Its classification in 1898 and its successive restorations testify to the desire to preserve this Alsatian medieval heritage, marked by the cultural exchanges between Burgundy, Franche-Comté and Upper Rhine. Archaeological and historical sources, including medieval charters and 19th century studies, shed light on its importance in the religious and seigneurial history of the region.

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