St. Martin's Chapel

St. Martin’s Chapel (German: Martinskapelle) stands at an elevation of 1,085 metres above sea level (NHN) at the upper end of the Katzensteig valley on the territory of Furtwangen just above the source of the Danube. It is also not far from the source of the River Elz and thus the main European watershed between the Rhine and the Danube. The West Way, a major hiking trail in the Black Forest runs past the chapel as does the long-distance ski trail from Schonach to Belchen.

St. Martin’s Chapel stands above an old mountain pass that may have even existed in the La Tène period (5th–1st centuries B.C.). If that was the case, the chapel represents a link between Celtic and early Christian culture in this region. Archaeological excavations in 1958 showed that, on the site of the present chapel, there was a religious building as early as the time around 800 A.D. perhaps a heathen spring shrine. The same investigations uncovered a basin that, if this was in fact a religious building, could have been a font.

From the exposed foundations, the appearance of this first building was able to be reconstructed. It consisted of a sacred space, 4.20 by 4.20 metres in area, and an attached baptismal room with two windows. According to the report of the 1958 restoration, this layout is similar to that of St. Wendelin’s Chapel (600 A.D.) in Cazis in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.

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