The Dörnschlade is one of the well-known places of pilgrimage in the southern Sauerland. It lies at a height, between the villages of Altenhof and Hünsborn of the community of Wenden, right on the border to the Siegerland. The pilgrimage chapel Dörnschlade belongs to the parish of St. Severinus Wenden.

This place of pilgrimage is mentioned in a document from 1414.
The picture of grace is almost two feet high, carved without any art, and represents the most blessed virgin with the Christ child in her arms. The picture used to be in a saint's house.

Already in 1776 they wanted to build a new chapel in its place, but in the enlightened period at that time the church authorities in Cologne did not care much about pilgrimages.

Author Peter Soemer also tells us that in 1859 the first sermon of a newly ordained priest stimulated the building of a new chapel and, according to collections in the individual village communities, a beautiful Gothic chapel was built at this location.
It was inaugurated on November 13 in 1864 by Pastor Schmidt and has a vestibule and a Gothic altar on which the picture of grace is placed. In 1865 a hermitage was built in the immediate vicinity, in which a hermit lives.

The whole history of the pilgrimage chapel Dörnschlade, the long and tough struggle of the Wenden believers with the state and church authorities for the construction of this chapel is documented in a document that Karl Jung published in 1989 for the 125th anniversary of the Dörnschlade. This document can be bought at the Dörnschlade's document stand or at the parish church's stand.

Guides through the pilgrimage chapel Dörnschlade:
by the parish of St. Severinus

Text: https://www.pv-wendener-land.de/kirchen/doernschlade

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