Chapelle et sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Dusenbach, Marian sanctuary in a valley at Ribeauvillé, France.
The Chapelle et Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Dusenbach is a pilgrimage complex in a wooded valley near Ribeauvillé, rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in the 19th century. It comprises a church with pale pinkish-beige walls, a steep grey slate roof and a slender octagonal bell tower with a dark conical spire, adjoining a lower building with a steep brown tiled roof and small square windows. A square tower of rough grey-brown masonry with a blue-and-white coat of arms stands nearby.
Egenolph II of Ribeaupierre brought a Marian statue back from the crusades and had a first chapel built at Dusenbach; sources disagree whether this was in 1210 or 1221. Around 1260 his nephews Ulrich II and Heinrich I added a second chapel, and Anselm II founded a third after his release on 2 February 1297. The chapels were destroyed on 25 March 1794 during the Revolution and rebuilt in neo-Gothic style from 1892 under architect Karl Winckler.
The name Dusenbach comes from the small stream beside the pilgrims' shelter, the Capuchin convent and the chapel; old maps label the site "Dreykirch", as on Nicolas Sanson's map of 1667. Pilgrims still come to the wooden Mater Dolorosa holding Christ, carved by Master Laurentz of Ribeauvillé to replace the lost medieval statue.
The sanctuary lies in a side valley off the RD 416 road from Ribeauvillé toward Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, about twenty kilometres from Colmar. Four forest paths reach it, including the "chemin Sarassin" from the western exit of Ribeauvillé and a route through vineyards and woods; the Stations of the Cross path climbs between them. The castles of Girsberg, Ulrich and Haut-Ribeaupierre are reached beyond the sanctuary.
The stream that gives Dusenbach its name runs past the pilgrims' shelter, the Capuchin convent and the chapel. Old maps, including Nicolas Sanson's 1667 map of Paris, label the site "Dreykirch" (three churches), and Ichtertsheim used the form "Dreykirchen", recalling the three chapels built by the Ribeaupierre family.
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