Lochwiller

Perched in the back of Kochesberg, Lochwiller is an Alsatian village whose roots go back at least to the Merovingian era, as evidenced by the monolithic sarcophagi discovered around its church. According to tradition, it was founded by Saint Léobard, an Irish monk and disciple of Saint Columban. The village was later attached to the Marmoutier Abbey before coming under the authority of the Strasbourg bishopric from 1663 to 1789. Its history is still visible in the stones of its Saint James the Greater church, a 15th-century Gothic building remodeled in the following century. The porch tower, probably inherited from the old church, rises over four levels, lit by large windows at the bell floor and small openings on the intermediate floors. Inside, the 15th-century Eucharistic cabinet, with its carved tabernacle and wrought iron grille, draws the eye, while the cemetery preserves two remarkable steles: one from 1714 with Roman letters, the other from 1841 adorned with a curved pediment topped by a cross. Around the village, four double crosses with niches in pink sandstone, called