Sainte-Brigitte Church

The history of the Sainte-Brigitte Church in Mittelwihr dates back to 1046, when the first church was built there.

In the 15th century, it was replaced by a building surrounded by high enclosing walls defining the cemetery.

From 1534, after the introduction of the Reformation by the Dukes of Württemberg, the church was dedicated to Protestant worship.

In 1688, the Simultaneum was established in Mittelwihr, allowing both confessions to share the same place of worship. In 1866, the 15th-century church, then in poor condition, was demolished and replaced by a new simultaneous church. The work revealed funerary slabs and a fragment of a Roman altar.

During the fighting in the Colmar Pocket in December 1944, the church was almost entirely destroyed, except for the lower parts of the Gothic bell tower-choir and the nave arcades.

A provisional simultaneous church was inaugurated on June 15, 1947, in village huts.

In 1960, two separate churches, one Catholic and one Protestant, were built to end the Simultaneum. The nave arcades of the 1866 church, destroyed in 1944, now decorate the square where the two new churches stand.