The best running trails in Stadtwald Hofheim

Here you will find a permanently installed hunting blind.

On June 24, 2022, the new St. John's Chapel at the Gimbach farm was consecrated. As an introduction and reminder: The first stone evidence of a sacred site dates back to the sixth century. For centuries, various buildings stood here, including a chapel, which was only demolished at the beginning of the 19th century. Processions and pilgrimages to this site have been documented since around 1650 and are still carried out today. Drawings, paintings, and map entries of the structures have also existed for centuries. (A brief note regarding various images and depictions from that time: For artistic reasons, the background, e.g., the 451-meter-high Staufen mountain, was moved to a different location to fit the overall picture.) Around 1912, the Pfeffer family, and subsequently the Schiela family, considered rebuilding the demolished chapel. They even collected existing building materials. But it wasn't until about 100 years later, around 2010, that the idea of building a pilgrimage site or shrine was revived, albeit somewhat circuitously: Mrs. Schiela's husband was visiting a doctor in Flörsheim when he spoke with a relative. One topic of conversation was a prayer room in Gimbach. Through the doctors, Dr. Betina Kilb-Fessler and Dr. Joachim Fessler, I, Helmut Mohr, was approached as a friend and architect, as I had been involved with church construction and renovations in the Main-Taunus district since 1983. Contact with Mrs. Schiela and her sister then led to the coordination and work that culminated in the project, the results of which can be seen here.

From the Meisterturm tower, you have a magnificent panoramic view of the entire Rhine-Main region, the Taunus mountains, and the surrounding area. Truly beautiful! 🤩

https://sankt-elisabeth-maintaunus.de/index.php/component/dpcalendar/location/42

https://www.historisches-hofheim.de/A11-Bergkapelle/index.php/

The listed chapel, a landmark of Hofheim, is visible from afar (e.g., from the A66 motorway). Its impressive history was commemorated in 2016 with an exhibition and a book at the Hofheim City Museum, marking the 350th anniversary of the vow made there. The quotations in this text are taken from that book. Following the horrors of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), another catastrophe claimed victims among the population: the plague. In 1665, it was brought up the Rhine from Cologne to Mainz and spread – primarily via market ships – to Frankfurt and, from 1666 onward, to Flörsheim. Soon, other towns in the Main Valley were also affected. Hofheim was an exception. After the threat became tangible, particularly due to plague deaths in Zeilsheim and Flörsheim, Pastor Johannes Gleidner led the people of Hofheim in a procession to the "Rabberg" hill on June 3, 1666 (Ascension Day). As one of his later successors, Antonius Hilf, described in 1864, the procession, accompanied by penitential hymns, proceeded "up the vine-covered slope." Young men carried banners, the cross, and the canopy, beneath which four virgins carried an image of Mary. At the top, Gleidner asked if they would like to name the mountain "Carmelberg" (Carmel Mountain), build a chapel there, and vow to "make several pilgrimages there each year." Afterward, the people "fell to their knees, deeply moved," and made the vow—at which point, at that very moment, the bells of the parish church below began to ring. When further plague victims appeared in Wicker, Weilbach, Eppstein, Fischbach, Hochheim, Flörsheim, Eddersheim, Castel, Mainz, Frankfurt, and Zeilsheim, Gleidner led the communities of Hofheim and Marxheim up the mountain again on July 2, 1666 (the Feast of the Visitation). Pilgrims from surrounding villages joined the pilgrimage, and Gleidner renewed "the vow, made known to him by everyone, that if God would avert the afflictions of the plague, he would build a chapel on this site to His glory and to the praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary." Hofheim was spared from the plague, and in May 1667, work began on preparing the timber for the half-timbered structure. The chapel was consecrated on September 29th. One hundred years later, the church had become too small, and a new, larger one had to be built. By this time, a "pilgrimage tourism" had developed around the chapel, which was also a "thorn in the side" of the local priest. The new stone building was more than twice the size of the old chapel: 27.90 meters long, 12.60 meters wide, and 13.20 meters high. A gallery provided additional seating capacity. From 1774 onwards, silent prayer services were permitted, as the chapel was not consecrated until ten years later (1784). ```

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meisterturm

https://historisches-hofheim.de/Michelsberger-Kultur/