Saint Michael's Chapel of Rimlen

The Rimlen Chapel, the only remaining trace of a now vanished hamlet, stands in Ergersheim, about twenty kilometers from Strasbourg. Dating back to the 12th century, it is the last witness to Rimlenheim, largely destroyed by the Armagnacs. The poor soil and repeated flooding of the Bruche River led to the village's disappearance by the mid-17th century. The current building replaced a Romanesque chapel, as evidenced by the small apse-shaped choir and the stones reused for the door frame. Restored in the 1960s by the Ergersheim parish, it has become a place of reflection and prayer. The village finally disappeared in 1758. Its name comes from the Saint-Michel Abbey of Honau, which owned these lands. The altarpiece, donated by a schoolteacher in 1741, adds to its historical interest. Every year on September 29, Saint Michael's Day, a mass is held here in memory of the former inhabitants. To visit, one must cross Ergersheim and take the road towards Ernolsheim-sur-Bruche: the chapel is nestled in the heart of the vineyard.