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Origin and history

The Protestant church of Weiterswiller, also known as St.Michel's Church, is a religious building built around 1100 in the Alsatian village of Weiterswiller in the Lower Rhine department. Ranked a historic monument since 1921, it depicts a Romanesque architecture redesigned over the centuries, with a nave enhanced in 1525 and a square tower covered with a roof in the pavilion. Its history is marked by the transition between Catholicism and Protestantism, especially with the introduction of the Reformation by the Fleckenstein family around 1543.

The first written document mentioning the chapel dates from 1346, ordering that the burials of the faithful of Weiterswiller, previously carried out at the Neuwiller cemetery, take place in the cemetery adjacent to the local chapel. In 1366, a premissary was founded, imposing the celebration of several weekly Masses. The church became mixed in 1717, sharing its use between Catholics and Protestants until 1874, when a new parish church Saint Michael was built.

The walls of the church, of Romanesque origin, house a collection of frescoes from the beginning of the 15th century, rediscovered in 1906 after being hidden by a badigeon applied during the Reformation. These paintings illustrate biblical scenes: the Creation and tribulations of man on the north wall, while the south wall is dedicated to Christ, the savior of humanity. The choir also preserves traces of paintings, although partially masked by a later-added dogive vault.

The building underwent several transformations, notably in 1525, as evidenced by the date engraved above the triumphal arch. After the Reformation, the walls were decorated with Bible verses at the end of the sixteenth century. The church also houses the tombs of four nobles of the Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl family, including John (died 1552) and Henri (died 1561), who were involved in the introduction of Protestantism in the region.

Located away from the present centre of the village, the church stands in the middle of an enclosure, a vestige of the old cemetery which preserves an ossuary dating from about 1500. This displacement is due to the destruction of the local castle during the Thirty Years War, resulting in a migration from the village to the heights of the rocky massif. Today, the parish belongs to the Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine (UEPAL), in the parish of the Five Clochers.

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