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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The simultaneous church of Notre-Dame de La Petite-Pierre, located in the Lower Rhine in the Grand East region, is a religious building with multiple influences, built mainly in the 1st quarter of the 15th century. His polygonal choir, vaulted with warheads and decorated with 15th-century frescoes depicting Christian scenes such as the Coronation of the Virgin or the Last Judgment, was erected in 1417 under the impulse of Count Burkard of Lützelstein, as evidenced by an inscription engraved on the axial window. This raised choir also houses funerary slabs from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as murals partially restored in the 19th century. The building, originally Catholic, became Protestant around 1560 before being divided between the two cults from 1739, a status which it still retains today as a simultaneous church.

The nave, probably built at the end of the 17th or early 18th century, is extended by a peg tower whose present appearance would date back to the first half of the 19th century, as evidenced by a lithography of 1849. A door dated 1624, now hidden, recalls the successive transformations of the building. In 1885, the nave and tower were restored, while the campanile, originally placed on the nave in the eighteenth century, was replaced by the current bell tower. The church was inscribed in the Historic Monuments in 1934 (for its funerary monuments) and then classified in 1969 (for its choir and paintings), highlighting its exceptional heritage value, both artistic, historical and symbolic for the local community.

The protected elements include the funeral monuments of Count Burckhard and his wife (17th century), embedded in the western wall of the nave, as well as the entire choir with its 15th century frescoes. The latter, rediscovered and preserved, offer a rare example of medieval monumental painting in Alsace. The triumphal arch, separating the choir from the nave, and the sacristy arranged in the tower-pig complete this hybrid architectural ensemble, reflecting the cultural and political evolutions of the region, from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

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