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Religious heritage
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Before the start
of the Protestant Reform Movement in the early 16th C,
two religions already lived on the Reserve: Catholicism
and Judaism. All three religions in fact left a rich and
very varied legacy of many styles from many periods.
From 1684 on, the cohabitation of the two Christian communities
was at the origin of the simultaneum, a church used by
both communities. This practice is still in use in some
villages.
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A simultaneum, the Church
of James the Great in Reipertswiller
© SYCOPARC
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Other village churches in Alsace have characteristic silhouettes:
in fact the two styles of church bear witness to the two
religions of the people of the villages. |
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Niederbronn les Bains Synagogue
© SYCOPARC |
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Inscriptions in some of the old houses, cemeteries and
synagogues recall the presence of Jews in many villages
in the Reserve. The Judeo-Alsatian Museum in Bouxwiller
has a rich display of this culture in a former synagogue.
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Wissembourg Abbey
Church
© SYCOPARC
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Wissembourg Abbey Church is a fine example of Romanesque
architecture in the region between the 10th and the 13th
C.
Bibliography
"The rich Jewish legacy in Alsace bossue"
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