Sue's Corner-St. Peter

Church and cemetary

at St. Peter

Katie and I took a brutal bike ride up a mountain to the lovely old village of St. Peter on the southern slopes of Mt. Kandel last Thursday. It is on the Schwarzwald Panoramastrasse (Black Forest Panorama Road), but we came in from the backside on a grueling one lane path. It is a beautiful ride from our town on a bike trail through a couple of small, picturesque villages and past quaint farms. We continued along a stream into some woods and then began the vertical climb.

View at the top of the single lane
road as we rode into St. Peter

After several switchbacks and lots of puffing, we broke out from the forest into a beautiful mountain meadow. Farms dotted the countryside and just above the horizon we could see the domes of the church. Whew!

St. Peter centers around an old Benedictine abbey founded in 1090. It burned in 1238 and 1437. It was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries to match the style of the times.

St. Peter's Benedictine Abbey

The town square has several little shops and restaurants. Like most places in southern Germany, there is a small, austere Lutheran church tucked off to the side and a huge, ornamental Catholic church anchoring the town square.

Catholic church on the square

Interior of St. Peter's Lutheran/Evangelical
Church

Interior of St. Peter's Catholic Church

Pipe organ in the Catholic
Church

Katie and I toured the neatly trimmed cemetary adjacent to the square. Each plot has it's own little garden.

Cemetary in St.
Peter

There is a memorial to St. Peter's war dead in the graveyard that was originally built to honor the World War I soldiers. But then two long plaques were added to pay respect to the World War II casualties. It was astounding how many young men from this tiny village were killed between 1939-1945. I took a photo of only one of the two WWII plaques on the memorial. Next time I ride up to St. Peter, I am going to count the number of dead from each war.

War memorial and one of the plaques honoring the
dead soldiers.

It was quite cold once we stopped sweating, so Katie and I found a cozy spot to drink a milch kaffee (latte). The ride down was full brakes and absolutely amazing! It was a great workout with a wonderful reward...St. Peter!

Giant chess set on the square and our cozy kaffee spot.