Builder: Hubert and Maria Dold, owner: Nikolaus Dold, inauguration: 22 October 1989
On 22 October 1989, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a small bell could be heard ringing across the floodplain of the upper Elz valley. The builders and farm owners of the time were celebrating the inauguration of the new St Wendelin's Chapel on the fern farm with over a thousand visitors.
But before this could happen, several chapels in the region were visited and inspected in order to get ideas and visions of a new chapel. On the third Sunday of Advent 1987, the plan for the new chapel, drawn up by Wilfried Papa, was finalised. Construction began in spring 1988.
The patron saint of the chapel is St Wendelin. Among farmers, he is known as the "cattle saint". St Notburga, the patron saint of agriculture, as well as St Mary and a wooden cross in the chancel are also housed in the chapel as wooden figures. St Nicholas was symbolically donated to the successor of the farm. A year later, the chapel was enriched with a wooden Stations of the Cross with 14 stations thanks to the donations from the inauguration day.
A wrought-iron cross and the weathercock adorn the chapel tower.
The structure of the offering box with 9 offering candles symbolises the builder Hubert Dold with his 8 siblings.
The 4 children of the current farm owner Nikolaus Dold were baptised in the chapel.
A procession is held from the Weißenbacher Höhe to the chapel during the week of petitions. A May devotion is also held in May and a holy mass is celebrated on St Wendelin's Day in October.
According to old custom, the bell is still rung three times a day: at 6 a.m. (formerly as a wake-up call), at 11 a.m. (formerly to fetch the women from the fields to the hearth) and at 6 p.m. (formerly as a time of prayer).
The fern farm offers accommodation.
www.farnbauernhof.de