Chapel St. Maria Magdalena (Lochau)

A small Roman Catholic chapel stands half-hidden in Lochau, a village beside the Bodensee in Vorarlberg. The building is dedicated to Mary Magdalene and its feast day falls on 3 July. It has been known by many names over the centuries, including the Chapel of the Poor and the Gallows Chapel, because it once stood beside the execution site for the city of Bregenz. The chapel first appears in records from 1643. In 1831 it was moved to make way for a lakeside road and rebuilt in the Biedermeier style. By 1986 it was in ruins, but local effort and private donations allowed it to be moved again and restored in 1889. For generations it served as the last place of penance for those led to the gallows on the hill behind. Inside, the stone chapel is only about four metres high, two metres wide and three metres long, with a steep roof of clay tiles. A single person can kneel before the plain wooden cross and the carved wooden figure of Mary Magdalene. The chapel now stands between modern houses and the Klausmühlebach stream, close to the Bodensee shore and the remains of the New Schanze fort.