Furtwangen cemetery chapel

Built in 1856/1857, it is the second oldest church in Furtwangen after St Martin's Chapel.

The modest little church is not a special architectural work of art in its external form, but inside it has become a worthy place of consecration. This chapel has a chequered history spanning almost a century and a half. After St Martin's Chapel, it is the second oldest of the various places of worship in Furtwangen and was built in 1856/57 largely from voluntary donations. It is the property of the town council.

Soon after its completion, Furtwangen was struck by the great fire disaster on 23 June 1857, which also destroyed the parish church. How glad people were at the time that they were able to move to this new chapel for church services. However, when the chapel was only rarely used for services after the emergency church was built in 1875, it slowly deteriorated into an equipment room for the gravediggers. From 1940 onwards, funerals could no longer be conducted from the funeral parlour, where the blessing took place, directly to the grave. Therefore, from this time onwards, the dead were laid out in the chapel shortly before the funeral, where the mourners bid farewell to the coffin. It was only two decades ago that a mortuary was built here.

However, many years passed before the chapel was reinstalled in the place its founders had intended for it. In 1957, it was restored by decision of the local council in collaboration with the Catholic parish under honorary citizen Father Stefan Blattmann and consecrated on 28 September. The men's choir of the 1838 choral society and the town band took part in the ceremony.

The speeches were given by the clergymen of the three denominations, Pastors Blattmann, Eggert and Thoma. The chapel was divided by a porch. The commemorative plaques of the famous sons of our town, the painter brothers Johann Baptist and Lukas Kirner, the painter J. B. Laule, Martin Blessing, the orchestrion maker and his successor Josef Kuß, were reinstalled on the side walls of the façade. Inside, a new wooden ceiling, a new floor and coloured glass windows were installed, one of which is also dedicated to the memory of our fallen.

During a later, further renovation following an interior fire, the disruptive gallery was also removed and the kneeling benches replaced with chairs, which also created more space. In recent years, the ascending entrance was made more favourable by installing steps and handrails. However, the chapel, which is very exposed to the winter weather, is always in need of further repairs to the roof and shingle cladding. Thanks to its interior pictorial decoration, it has now become a worthy centre of the final resting place of our dead.