The town of Pfaffenheim is situated to the feet of the Vosges between Colmar and Rouffach.
District of Rouffach
District of Guebwiller
Area: 1457 hectares
Population 1997: 1200 inhabitants
Origin of the name: German Pfaffen, priest, and Heim, habitat.
Reputation:

The half globe, become by the continuation a moon crescent, overcome
of a cross, is a classical emblem of the goods ecclésiastiques.

 

  The origin of the town dates back to the period gallo-romaine, indeed Celtic. As early as the top middle ages, alsatian religious establishments there possess agricultural domains and viticoles. Pfaffenheim is part of the High mundat of the Strasburg diocese. It then is managed by an attended bailli of nine sworn placed under the guardianship of the big bailli of Rouffach. The town attracts also the lust of the secular powers. In 1340, it is burned by the inhabitants of Colmar at war against the Strasburg bishop. A century later, in 1444, Pfaffenheim is put to bag by the Armagnacs that foam the region. It is again devastated at the time of the war of the Peasants in 1525, then during the war of Thirty Years. The town is shaken by the revolutionary disturbances, and the church of the Schauenberg is devastated. Pfaffenheim rediscovers his prosperity with the commerce of his renowned wine. Today, the viticulture occupies more third of the local population. Industrial slight remaining establishment, the town has his recent extension to the construction many individual houses. The population activates moves itself towards Rouffach, Colmar or Mulhouse

  Called it "table of the druids", the dolmen is situated in proximity of the pèlerinage of the Schauenberg. His presence can corroborate the thesis attributing Celtic origins to Pfaffenheim, of which the name also could translate itself by remains druids. During the top middle ages, christianity recovers sacred sites of the paganisme, explaining maybe the installation of an ermitage to the Schauenberg.

  A legend of the XVIe century attributes the griffures of this boulder to the devil that, at the time of the enlargement of the chapel of the Schauenberg in 1515, would have wanted to throw it on the work-site. Suddenly softened, the rock could not have been raised, from which the presence of impressions and his second name of "rock of the devil".

  This chestnut, classified by the conservatoire of the alsatian sites trees monument, probably thousand-year-old east. The chestnut is introduced in Alsace by the Roman ones. It produces an appreciated wood and brown that did the reputation of Pfaffenheim. It pushes in edge of a forest of false acacias that, as the chestnuts, give a resistant wood and used imputrescible for the échalas of the vines.

  The ruins of the chapel are the alone traces of the hameau of Husern, disappeared to the XVIe century. Situated on a plateau of 25 hectares, the structure possesses a square nef and a choir endow with an abside semi-circulaire oriented towards the east. Behind this choir was rediscovered several sépultures of children. To the south of the structure, the soubassements of a big building are disclosed. These foundations correspond to a former convent of religious, come ones of the Sundgau in 1236, that are equally to the origin of the convent of Klingenthal to Bâle.

  Strengthened former church exist only the choir and the sacristie. Erected at first of the XIIIe century, the choir marks the passage of the trains novel to the gothic one. His abside to five sections is the one of the older ones of alsace. The interior of the choir raises more again of the gothic spirit, understanding notably a custode of the XVe century. The two arch keys of the sacristie romane carry a representation of Samson and an Agnus Dei. The Holy church martin deeply is transformed in 1836, then in 1893, with the construction of a new neogothic structure, of which the steeple is damaged the day of the liberation of the town, February 5 1945.

  The slashes that presents the exterior wall of the sacristie would be the sharpening brands of the serpettes of the winegrowers. They correspond maybe to a superstitious former practice assuring abundant harvests.

  Former ermitage, the Schauenberg, that dominates the alsace plain, welcomes the construction of a first chapel in 1440, dedicated to the pélerinage of the Virgin. This one is enlarged in 1515, in a trains gothic. After the war of Thirty Years, the chapel is served by the Franciscan monks come of Rouffach, that some finish the enlargement in 1690, and lay out the approaches in order to welcome the pélerins. Thanksgiving plaques of the XVIIe century recover the walls of the small church. The prieuré is eliminated in 1791. The Schauenberg, devastated, will be sold as well national. Four bourgeois of Pfaffenheim buy the site. The chapel is reopened to the worship in 1810. The restoration of the church to the XIXe century and the execution of the mount of the Olive Trees in 1860 induce a considerable leap of the pélerins to Schauenberg. A new retable is placed in the choir in 1947. Consolidation works are undertaken in order to welcome pélerins and walkers.

  During your walk around the church Notre-Dame-du-Schauenberg, to the end of the cross way, you will be able to admire three beautiful statues to the foot of the forest.

  This statue is put back to the ermite of the Schauenberg, at first XVe century, by the comtesse of Hesse, in the hope that the holy taken man for his cure. The new one of his miraculous restoration induces it come many pélerins to the Schauenberg. The bishop of Bâle decides to erect the ermitage in pélerinage in 1483. During the Revolution, the statue is hidden by the inhabitants of Pfaffenheim in order some to avoid the destruction. She is retrieved to the pélerinage, with auspicious in 1811.

  After the defeat of Sedan in 1870, frank soldiers marksmen continue to pester the German troops that occupy the alsace, in the district of Rouffach, and finish by to withdraw itself to the Schauenberg. They undergo then an important attack of the Prussian ones. The chapel is damaged by the shooting of the canons. A shell to burst half is preserved, and will be suspended to the ceiling of the room of the pélerins.

  In an impasse, several houses have been built around a single court. It is accessed through an arch, which bears the date of its construction, 1557, and the initials HR's single access ensures permanent control this way. Originally, this land may have been shared among several heirs.

  The house, constructed to the XVIIe century, characteristic east of the rural architecture of this region viticole. The ground floor served to the fermentation of the wine. The first floor, intended for the dwelling of the winegrower, presents a light one advanced on the street. The vast attic was used to stock cereals or wood.

  This entry, of a height of 3 meters, allows attaining the ground floor of a house vigneronne. The arch in pink grès, elliptic légérement, follows the slope of the street, and allows the entry of a loaded cart of barrels. It carries the construction year of the structure as well as the initial ones of the owners, and is decorated sculptured flowers, testimony of a certain wealth.