Glöcklehof Chapel

General information

The Glöcklehof Chapel holds Bad Krozingen's most valuable gem, discovered in the year 1936 by a spa guest; the art commissioner for the diocese of Rottenburg, pastor Albert Pfeffer from Lautlingen near Ebingen. The construction and frescoes date back to a year around 1000.

The former monastery St. Gallen, south of Lake Constance in modern-day Switzerland, is presumed to be the builder due to the similar motifs in book illustrations by local monks, but also those on the island of Reichenau, and due to the fact that the first documented mention of Krozingen in the year 808 - it was Charlemagne's fortieth year of rein - was found in a St. Gallen document; a notarial transfer of estates located in Eschbach, Herten and Eichen from a Blidsind and his wife Swanahilt to this monastery, decreed in Krozingen.

The walls of the chapel feature rock fragments and broken stone, or Wacken, as they can be found everywhere in the foothill areas of the Black Forest, and has crooked and lopsided walls. The deep and small windows at the top are noticeable. The narrow and square chancel and the nave are almost the same height. A Baroque ridge turret marks the boundary between both structures.

Trivia

• The painting on the wall above the altar tells of the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The lower edge is formed by a wide, red horizontal line and the upper edge by a meander frieze, similar to an Oriental, geometric embellishment. As common in the Romantic era, Christ as the judge of the word thrones in the centre surrounded by a round medallion: he is depicted without a beard and with a halo, full of "eternal youth" (Gombert), giving a blessing with the outstretched finger of the right hand and with the left hand placed on a book.
• In the year 1775, the Constance Vicar General of Hornstein inaugurated the probably newly modified Baroque chapel at the time, to St. Ulrich of Augsburg, who successfully defended the town against the Hungarians in the year 955. On St. Ulrich's Day (4th July) there is always a church service in Glöcklehof Chapel.