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Founded: 1270Category: Religious sites in France
Historical period: Late Capetians (France)
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Église Saint-Maurice (Church of Saint Maurice) is the medieval parish church of the small town of Soultz. The church is noteworthy for its refined and light Gothic design, and for the works of art it contains, including a Renaissance pulpit and a 1750 Silbermann pipe organ.
The work on the church was begun in 1270, at the site of a previous Romanesque church from the 11th century, of which some remains have been uncovered by 1990s archaeologists. The transept was finished before 1310 and the nave around 1340, but the overall construction was only completed in 1489 with the addition of a bay at the western end, because the church had been found too small for the town's population at that time. The top of the spire was added in 1611.
The height of the crossing tower is 66 metres, including the sun-shaped weather vane on top of the cross. The church's floor plan is in the shape of a Latin cross, with a central nave and two aisles.
The church lost much of its original furniture during the French Revolution. Today, it contains 14th- and 15th-century frescos and an elaborate wooden pulpit from around 1616.
On the outside, the southern portal has retained its tympanum from around 1320, representing Saint Maurice on horseback and the Adoration of the Magi.
References:Ehrenbreitstein Fortress was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1832 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The fortress was never attacked.
Early fortifications at the site can be dated back to about 1000 BC. At about AD 1000 Ehrenbert erected a castle. The Archbishops of Trier expanded it with a supporting castle Burg Helferstein and guarded the Holy Tunic in it from 1657 to 1794. Successive Archbishops used the castle's strategic importance to barter between contending powers; thus in 1672 at the outset of war between France and Germany the Archbishop refused requests both from the envoys of Louis XIV and from Brandenburg's Ambassador, Christoph Caspar von Blumenthal, to permit the passage of troops across the Rhine.