Heilig-Kreuz-Kapelle, Chapel on Rodenberg hill in Menden, Germany
The Heilig-Kreuz-Kapelle is a chapel on the Rodenberg in Menden. The plastered solid building has buttresses and a roof turret with a slender spire and cross. The east choir with a 3/8 close from 1685–1688 was extended from 1711 to 1715 into a hall with a western 3/8 close. The portals bear the date 1712, and a statue of St. Anthony of Padua from 1895 stands above the west portal.
The structure was founded in 1685 with the eastern choir surviving from that original phase. A neo-gothic expansion with a new hall occurred between 1711 and 1715, significantly reshaping the building's appearance.
The chapel is also called St.-Antonius-von-Padua-Kapelle, and a statue of Anthony of Padua from 1895 stands above the west portal. The three baroque altars have twisted columns; the side altars of 1736 show Christ at the scourging column on the left and Ecce homo on the right. Since 1978 a figure of Christ Resting has stood in a niche.
Access is provided through three entrance portals reached by external staircases, making it straightforward to enter despite the hill's elevation. Large round-arched windows in the main hall and pointed-arch windows in the choir ensure bright interior lighting and good visibility throughout the space.
The chapel is the destination of a Stations of the Cross path up the Rodenberg hill, and its bell, cast in 1911, sounds the note F sharp. Above the west portal stands a statue of St Anthony of Padua, placed there in 1895. The lintels of the portals carry the date 1712.
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