St. Michaelis, Romanesque filial church in Niederrotweil, Vogtsburg im Kaiserstuhl, Germany
St. Michael is a Romanesque church in Niederrotweil, part of Vogtsburg im Kaiserstuhl. Its tall yellow-brown gabled nave is joined on the left by a square tower with a clock, louvered opening and green-patina spire; the plain gable has two small rectangular windows, a round window and a small window above, with an arched wooden double door below. The lower walls are gray stone.
The early Romanesque church was first documented in 1175, matching studies of its oldest masonry. Around 1350 the parish's tithes and patronage passed to St. Blasien Abbey, and the church was remodelled in Gothic style. In 1632 the bell tower burned during the Thirty Years' War; the tower was rebuilt in 1722, and in 1729 the church was enlarged and baroquified.
The church is a stop on the Kinzigtäler Jakobsweg, the pilgrim route running from Loßburg via Schutterwald and Rust to the Rhine bridge at Breisach, where it joins the Alsatian Way of St. James. Its patron is St. Michael, who appears in the choir vault fighting the dragon and on the north-side St. Michael's altar.
St. Michael stands in Niederrotweil, a village in the Kaiserstuhl area, on a site enclosed by a churchyard wall within an old Rhine loop. The church is a branch of the Oberrotweil parish, and a section of the Kinzigtäler Jakobsweg pilgrimage route passes by it.
The church stands on a former loop of the Rhine, and its fortified walls and site show it was meant as a refuge for the population in times of danger. The parish also lay on the Kinzigtäler Jakobsweg, the pilgrim route toward the Rhine bridge at Breisach.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,971 contributors worldwide.