Hirzbacher Kapelle

The Hirzbacher Kapelle stands in the hamlet of Hirzbach, part of Hammersbach in the Main-Kinzig district of Hesse. It is a small Romanesque chapel built in the 11th or 12th century. The building replaced earlier wooden and stone churches, traces of which were found during excavations between 1989 and 1992. These earlier structures included a 7th- or 8th-century wooden building with Roman spolia built into its walls. The chapel’s first written mention came in 1254 when Reinhard I of Hanau gave it to the Antonite Order. The chapel is worth visiting for its deep historical layers. The earliest church dates from Carolingian times and contained a richly furnished grave with a gold-brocade garment. After the Antonites took over in 1254, the building was enlarged and altered several times. By the 17th century only two services a year were held, yet the chapel remained a focus of legal disputes between the Antonites, the counts of Hanau and local villagers. The last Protestant service took place in 1840 before the building was used as a farm store and even a pigsty. Today the chapel forms part of the Kapellenhof estate. Inside, visitors see Romanesque doorways and Gothic windows, including a reused two-light tracery window. The chancel arch, with its fluted columns and carved impost blocks, once stood here but was removed in 1906 and partly destroyed in 1945. The surviving fragments are kept in Hanau’s Historical Museum. The chapel is now open to the public and used for cultural events and civil weddings, while the farm buildings provide homes and seminar space.