Pilgrimage Church Spabrücken

An extremely rewarding hike leads from Stromberg over the Schönberg Heights and Weissenfels (538m) down to Spabrücken with the pilgrimage church of our "Mother on the Soon Forest" that can be seen from afar. The laying of the foundation stone for this ancient Franciscan monastery church dates back to 1359. It replaced the old "Capella", which was mentioned in a deed dated 1338 for the locality of "Spachbrücken" in the medieval Dalberg County. The baroque furnishings of the pilgrimage church stem from the first half of the 18th Century, together with an organ built by Michael Stumm in 1735. The remains of the original structure are, to this day, easily discernable in the outer walls of the church, which had been designed as a single-nave hall church with a semicircular apse at the end of the chancel and a slate-covered gable roof, as well as two ridged turrets, which act as a steeple. The monastery adjoining the north side of the church was also built during this era (1681-1731). The interior of today's church is dominated by a high altar which reaches up to the ceiling, a two-sided altar with figures of the founder of the order, Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), as well as the impressive ribbed vault of the Gothic ceiling.