Pèlerinage de Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs

In the Middle Ages, the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Miserable and founded "vor guter Zyt und Jaren" (for a long time and for many years) was erected or restored at his own expense by a certain Henselin Gungesheim according to a draft of a document dated 29 May 1459 by the bishop of Strasbourg Robert Count Palatine (1440-1478). This Henselin Gungesheim asked for protection from the bishop, who then commissioned his auxiliary to consecrate the new chapel and the altars dedicated to Our Lady and all the Saints. It became a very popular pilgrimage. A third order called the Confraternity of the "Compassion of the Mother of Heavenly Hierarchies" was established there. It had members from the dioceses of Mainz, Augsburg, Constance, Speyer, Basel and Würzburg. The bishops of Strasbourg installed "principals" there for the administration of the temporal goods of the chapel. They greatly increased the possessions of the chapel by purchasing land and rents in the Kochersberg. In 1517 the wealth of the chapel was considerable. When the Reformation won Strasbourg, the sanctuary passed into the hands of the Beguines (cf. foundations of the presbytery: 1557) and then into those of the Johannites of Strasbourg. The village remained a Catholic bastion.

DATAtourisme France