The religious Patchwork

Cultural and leisure facilities

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Description

Val d'Argent boasts 26 churches and chapels, testifying to the strong religious diversity of the area in the 16th and 17th centuries. While the Lorraine side of the Val d'Argent remained Catholic and French-speaking, the Alsatian side became a veritable religious patchwork. Lutherans, French and German Reformed, Anabaptists and Catholics lived side by side with a certain degree of tolerance. In 1693, the Amish movement was born in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, on the initiative of Jacob Amann, who broke away from the local Anabaptists.
Some Protestant churches survived the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), which banned Calvinist worship.
The Reformed Temple at Sainte Marie aux Mines is one of the rare examples of 17th-century Reformed architecture preserved in France. Similarly, the church at Saint-Pierre-sur-l'Hâte is one of the last simultaneous churches in Alsace, shared between Catholics and Protestants.
Discover the religious diversity of the Val d'Argent, by taking the churches and chapels tour (booklet on sale at the tourist office) or in the company of a tour guide (visit by prior arrangement).