Käppele Church

Käppele is the popular name of the pilgrimage church Mariä Heimsuchung (Visitation of Mary) in Würzburg, which was built between 1748 and 1750 according to plans by Balthasar Neumann, replacing a small wooden chapel. This chapel originated from a wayside shrine erected in 1640 by a Main fisherman in his vineyard during the Thirty Years' War. The shrine contained a depiction of the sorrowful Mother with the dead Jesus on her lap (Vesperbild).

The pilgrimage to the Mother of Sorrows, which developed during the Thirty Years' War, has been cared for by the Capuchins since 1749, who have their convent in the hospice built in 1748.

A staircase with 247 steps leads to the Käppele, which, seen from the Main riverbank at half height, was built as a Stations of the Cross from 1761 to 1799. The Stations of the Cross with the staircases were renovated from October 2002 to October 2006 for 4.4 million Euros. The Stations of the Cross is the largest of its kind in Germany. It is laid out in the form of paved terraces, where large plane trees provide shade. A symmetrical staircase leads from one terrace to the next higher one.

The ensemble of church and Stations of the Cross, embedded in the vineyard landscape, is considered a significant jewel of the late Baroque. The Käppele is one of the few churches in the city that survived the bombing of Würzburg on March 16, 1945, without major damage.