Bad Endbach - Culture and Sightseeing

Culture and Sightseeing

In Wommelshausen stands a noteworthy old chapel of Romanesque origins that was apparently remodelled or renovated in the 13th century in the early Gothic style. It is said to be an important historic building as it has hardly changed over the ages. Timbers found in the demonstrably remodelled east gable come from the year 1268 (the year that they were felled). The building that stands today is, however, much older, likely by as much as 200 or 250 years. During renovation work, clues were found on the south side in the inner room to an earlier building. This earlier building might have been a wooden church on a stone foundation, and might have been built in the time of the Irish-Scottish mission in the area. Irish-Scottish missionaries were active in the vicinity even before Saint Boniface, as digs at the Büraburg Monastery prove (as do those at, among others, Wetter and the Christenberg). The building standing today might have been built under the influence of the Worms Bauhütte (a forerunner to the later guilds), as it bears a keen likeness to the rather bigger Magnus-Kirche (church) in Worms. The Bishopric of Worms once had vast holdings throughout the area.

Two small, high windows on the building's south side have round frames inside, but oddly squeezed, peaked frames on the outside, a sure sign of remodelling. The former priest's entrance in the south front wall is definitely Romanesque. The layman's entrance lies on the north side underneath the later enlarged window. In the west wall is found a further window. The chapel once had an oblong choir which was broken up and its opening walled up in the 18th century. Measurements of the building's inner dimensions yield a width of about 6.95 m and a length of about 10.15 m. The walls are about 1.2 m thick. The builders, however, used a "foot", believed to average about 33 cm long to do their measurements. The building stones were boulders, greywacke, on rich beds of mortar. There are no hewn stones. The inner room is a plain chamber. The building has a ridge turret as a bell tower. It never had a steeple like other churches in the area. These are the main things that set the building apart from others in the area. The inner room is further an example of one of the earliest galleries in the whole area.

The chapel is said to have once been built over a spring. Its location at the lowest place in the village lends weight to this story. It was supposedly a chapel to Saint Mary before the Reformation, and served as a pilgrimage site because of the spring, which was said to work wonders, and which was said to have come forth from under the choir. There is a pleasant anecdote about this.