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Origin and history

The church of St Peter, called Dompeter (meaning house of Peter), is located on the border of the municipalities of Molsheim and Avolsheim, in the Great East. Considered to be the oldest rural church in Alsace, it would have been consecrated between 1049 and 1053 by Pope Leo IX, although a legend made it go back to Roman times or the beginnings of Christianity. Excavations in 1914 revealed remains of a 7th century building, confirming its Merovingian origin.

According to tradition, the church was founded in the fourth century by Saint Materne, disciple of St Peter, after his miraculous resurrection thanks to the bumblebee of the apostle. The Dompeter served as a mother church (matrix capella) for Molsheim and Avolsheim until the Reformation, when religious orders from Strasbourg settled there. The current Romanesque building retains the widths of the 11th century naves, but has been extended and transformed over the centuries.

The tower, partially destroyed by lightning in 1746, was rebuilt in 1767 without its original decoration. In the 19th century, major changes included the reconstruction of the southern walls (1828) and the polygonal choir (1835). Abandoned until 1933, the church was restored by the Scouts of France and became a place of pilgrimage. Ranked a historic monument in 1930, it now houses historical bells, two of which come from Strasbourg Cathedral.

The Dompeter is surrounded by a communal cemetery (Avolsheim) and a thousand-year-old linden, near a source dedicated to St. Although located on the Molsheim ban, the church is legally owned by Avolsheim. Its furniture, partly stolen in the 1970s, is now protected by video surveillance. The site, classified in 1934, remains a symbol of Alsatian religious heritage.

The excavations of 1914 confirmed the existence of a primitive church with three naves and semicircular choir, of Syrian influence, dated the 7th-VIIIth centuries. The present building, rebuilt in the 11th century, preserves Romanesque elements such as the lintels of the side doors and pilasters. The transformations of the 15th, 16th and 18th centuries marked its architectural evolution, mixing Romanesque, Gothic and neo-Roman styles.

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