Spiritual hike to the Wilzenberg

Wayside Shrine "Mother of God with Child

The wayside shrine "Mother of God with Child" stands on the processional way at Aberg. It was erected in 1930. The wayside shrine made of cast stone with flat wooden relief "Mother of God and Child" is surrounded by figures and religious symbols and bears the inscription: "O Mary always help."

Stations of the Cross at Aberg

The Way of the Cross station at Aberg was built in 1989 by the Kath. Kirchengemeinde Schmallenberg.

This Way of the Cross with copies of original station pictures donated by H. J. Falke (28 J. 1842) was built in 1989 from donations of the St. Alexander parish. Its course reminds in the lower part of the "Seven Footfalls" on the way to the Wilzenberg, a prefiguration of the Way of the Cross, documented in 1769 by a founder's deed. The inclusion of the soldiers' graves (XIL station) is intended to commemorate suffering and death during the Second World War.

Cross with soldiers' graves

The cross with soldiers' graves "Am Aberg" was erected in 1945/46. The wayside cross with corpus, roof and back wall, under it an old colored representation of the 12th station of the Way of the Cross Am Aberg.

On a wooden board the following text is written:
"The whole glorious nature shows you the great God's trace.
But if you want to see him at his greatest, stay at his cross."

On the soldier's cross with roof next to it are the names of the soldiers from the 2nd World War who rested here: Josef Kohl, Hans Pesch, Jurt Eisinger 06.04.1945

In front of the wooden cross many hikers linger on the pilgrimage path "Wilzenberg" and pray to the King of Peace for peace in the world.

Wayside shrine "Mother of the Good Counsel

The wayside shrine "Mother of Good Counsel", at Aberg at the fork in the road was erected around 1800. It represents the Mother of God with the Child Jesus in wood and was erected by the sculptor Ignaz Hartmann from Wiedenbrück in 1956 or 1958. In the vernacular it is also called "Dammes Heiligenhäuschen".

On Ascension Day, the procession stops here on its way back, asking and singing the Marian hymn.

The Wilzenberg

From far away you can see the legendary Wilzenberg. It is also called the pilgrimage mountain of the Sauerland. On the Wilzenberg there was a rampart and refuge castle, which can still be partially recognized today.

The pilgrimage chapel in its present form dates from 1773 (demolished in 1508 and 1732). The Stations of the Cross date back to 1773.

In 1895 a lookout tower was built, which was renovated in 1990 and raised from 9 m to 17 m. The lookout tower is called the "lookout tower". From this lookout tower, the "holy mountain" of the Sauerland, you can look down on the land of 1,000 mountains and understand why our ancestors believed that the seat of the gods and heroes was in the loftiest peaks.

There is a fountain, also called Püttken, at the top of the hill. The children were told that the stork brought the babies from here.

The Countess Chunitsa

The Countess Chuniza (Kunigunde = Queen) lived on the legendary Wilzenberg. With her first husband Kuno she had a son "Timo". According to the legend she bewitched and poisoned her first husband Kuno and six other husbands / men by mixing red foxglove extract into the wine embers.

Out of remorse and repentance she donated all her monastery farms, lands, forests and estates to the Grafschaft monastery. Anno of Cologne had a monastery and a small town founded for her sins (Smalenburg, today Schmallenberg).

In the Chuniza ballad, which was recorded on the occasion of the 725th anniversary in 1969 and sung by "Will Bräutigam", today Tom Astor, it says among other things:

On the castle in the Sauerland
Ward once a nefarious woman known
by murderous deeds.
High on the Wilzenberg wild
there she has killed seven men,
a right Satansbraten.

When she disemboweled the seven men
she gave the archbishop then
the inheritance of her fathers
Anno of Cologne let found for the sins
a monastery and a small town.
But that was a little later.

Grafschaft Monastery

Ora et labora is the motto of the Benedictine monks, "pray and work," and that is exactly what the industrious religious did when Archbishop Anno of Cologne founded Grafschaft Monastery in 1072. Subsequently, the place was to become the cultural center of the Sauerland and the nucleus of the town of Schmallenberg. Grafschaft Monastery experienced its heyday in the course of the 12th century. Later, discipline and order must have suffered, the number of brothers decreased to seven. This explains why in 1508 the abbey joined the Bursfeld Congregation, a movement that emphasized Benedict's strict rule and intensive scientific study.

The monastery owned almost all the forests and fields in the Sauerland region of Elector Cologne and beyond, most of which were leased. For this the tenants, mainly farmers, had to pay their "tithe". This usually happened on Martinmas (11.11.).

The monastery took a new upswing, at least in economic terms, in the 17th and 18th centuries. The iron industry in the Sauerland began to develop and the monastery supported this movement on its lands. In 1729, the parts of the building that can still be seen today were rebuilt. The magnificent gatehouse in particular catches the eye, suggesting a castle rather than a monastery behind the walls.

In 1827, the convent passed into the possession of the von Fürstenberg family, which is still the majority owner today.

In 1948, the sisters of the Order of the Borromean Sisters came to Grafschaft to continue their monastic life here. The nuns, who had been expelled from Silesia, rebuilt the monastery with considerable investment of time and labor. The buildings must have been in pitiful condition at that time.

In May 1997, the Grafschaft monastery celebrated the 925th anniversary of its founding (1072). On this occasion, a museum on the "Art and History of Grafschaft Monastery" was opened in the monastery. In the monastery museum liturgical devices, writings and relics can be seen.