Hachiville was a commune in the canton of Clervaux until 1 January 1978, when it was merged with the communes of Asselborn, Boevange, and Oberwampach to form the new commune of Wincrange. The law creating Wincrange was passed on 31 October 1977.[2]
The name Hachiville [citation needed] appears for the first time in a charter in the year 1130. It is believed, however, that the site has been inhabited since Celtic times and that it was occupied by the Romans. The village's greatest fame lies in its celebrated hermitage, which is probably located on an ancient Celtic place of worship.[3]
The carved altar screen now displayed in Hachiville's baroque parish church is considered one of Luxembourg's most precious art treasures. Originally housed in the hermitage chapel just outside the village, the piece, which appears to date from the sixteenth century, depicts scenes from the life and the passion of Christ.[4] The hermitage chapel, Helzer Klaus, revered as a pilgrimage site in its own right, now contains a plaster copy of this original altarpiece. In 1973, Luxembourg issued a set of stamps depicting images of religious statues based on this altarpiece.[5] A few years later, in August 1976, the altarpiece was stolen. Fortunately, it was found a little more than a month later, packaged and ready to ship abroad. The mystery of who planned the crime still remains.[6]
The Helzer Klaus, or the hermitage chapel
Legend shrouds the origin of this altar screen. According to the story, the screen came from Frankish lands and was intended for a church in Belgium. However, as the oxen stopped for a drink at the mineral spring that still flows by the hermitage, they were shackled to the ground by some invisible power. The cart that bore the altarpiece was too heavy to move by any human means, and the art it contained was too costly to take any chances with. This was seen as a miraculous sign from the Queen of Heaven that she desired the altar to be built here, in the old chapel at the edge of a beech grove.[7]
The hermitage itself has also been honored with a stamp. A watercolor depiction of the restored chapel was featured in a stamp set in 1989.[8]
Folk Belief
An interesting divination ritual is associated with the hermitage and its mineral spring. It has been said that if you are unmarried and in search of a spouse, you must make your way to the chapel and walk three times around it without being observed. Then you should beat your head twice against a thick tree standing there (or is it once against each of two trees?), followed by a jump barefoot into the spring which flows close to the chapel door. If all these rituals have been successful, in the silence you should hear the name of your future husband or wife in the burbling of the water.[9][10]
Chiny is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
Plougastel-Daoulas is a commune in the Finistère department, located in the administrative region of Brittany, northwestern France.
Clervaux is a canton in the north of Luxembourg. Its capital is Clervaux.
Latour-de-Carol is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
Wincrange is a commune and village in northern Luxembourg, in the canton of Clervaux. The commune is the largest in Luxembourg by geographic area.
Mondorf-les-Bains is a commune and town in south-eastern Luxembourg.
Boevange is a village in the commune of Wincrange, in northern Luxembourg. As of 2001, the village had a population of 117.
Bernay is a commune in the west of the Eure department in Northern France.
Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, or simply Odeillo, is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales and Cerdagne near the Spanish border in the south of France. It comprises the villages of Odeillo and Via, as well as Font-Romeu, one of the oldest ski resorts in France and the oldest in the Pyrenees.
Asselborn is a small town in the commune of Wincrange, in northern Luxembourg. As of 2024, the town has a population of 454.
Oberwampach is a village in the commune of Wincrange, in northern Luxembourg. As of 2005, the village had a population of 172.
Alise-Sainte-Reine is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France.
Valdeande is a Spanish municipality in the province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile and León.
San Francesco della Vigna is a Roman Catholic church in the Sestiere of Castello in Venice, northern Italy.
Allassac is a commune in the Corrèze department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of central France.
The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, places a crown on the head of Mary as Queen of Heaven. In early versions the setting is a Heaven imagined as an earthly court, staffed by saints and angels; in later versions Heaven is more often seen as in the sky, with the figures seated on clouds. The subject is also notable as one where the whole Christian Trinity is often shown together, sometimes in unusual ways. Crowned Virgins are also seen in Eastern Orthodox Christian icons, specifically in the Russian Orthodox church after the 18th century. Mary is sometimes shown, in both Eastern and Western Christian art, being crowned by one or two angels, but this is considered a different subject.
Baâlons is a commune in the Ardennes department in the Grand Est region of northern France.
St Alban's Church in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, is a Roman Catholic parish church. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It was designed by A. W. N. Pugin and is described as a "church of exceptional interest among the works of this major architect".
Vigy is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
Cosroe Dusi was an Italian painter in the Neoclassical style, active for many years in St Petersburg, Russia, painting mainly sacred and historical subjects. Dusi was nicknamed by his contemporaries the "modern Tintoretto", for his liveliness of invention and rapidity at painting.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
