The best cycling routes around Altpfirt

Closed permanently from the end of September 2025

The original church of the lower village parish was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and then to Saint Anthony the Hermit, but in 1842, Father Acker established Saint Geron as the main patron saint. In 1802, the two parishes of Pfetterhouse were united, and there was only one church. The current bell tower was built in 1900 by the architect Alexandre Louvat from Mulhouse. The old furnishings were gradually replaced. This church is the only one in Alsace to have Saint Geron as its patron saint.

This is a (often dry) fountain at a highway intersection in the village called Winkel, not the location of the source of the river Ill; that's 850 meters to the south at another highlight: https://www.komoot.com/highlight/4448431 But the source is often not producing much visible water. So it's perhaps fitting that Komoot's automatic translation doesn't reliably avoid messing up place names. While that's confusing for users, we can try to focus on the humor: Unless the highlight author puts the title "Illentsprung" (German for "Source of the Ill river") in quotation marks, it is displayed to me in English as "Source of pain" ... 🤣 ;-)

First mentioned in 1144 and rebuilt in 1781, this remote chapel is tucked away in a valley near Sondersdorf. It was once a parish church and later a place of pilgrimage, with an unusual painted coffered ceiling and Gothic tabernacle.

The village is known in Alsace because the Ill River, which joins the Rhine a few kilometers north of Strasbourg, has its source here. The source of the Ill, located east of Winkel at a place designated in 1591 as Illentsprung, meaning origin of the Ill, in an orchard on the slopes of the Glaserberg. Its current powered the waterwheels of sawmills and mills.

The spot is marked by striking trees around a small chapel. For a stop, you have a large picnic area 100 m lower.

Another beautiful place to spot storks.

In 1913 and 1914, following the ideas of Johann Knauth, architect of Strasbourg Cathedral and curator of the M.H., the nave, the side chapel of the Sacré-Coeur, the Saint-Joseph Chapel in the basement, and the sacristy were rebuilt in the Gothic style by the architect Alexandre Louvat from Mulhouse. The old Gothic nave, remodeled in the 18th century, was decorated with murals dating from 1491. To the south of the choir was a small chapel dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, with cross-ribbed vaults on consoles. To the north were the remains of the old priory cloister. On the site of the present Sacred Heart Chapel was the 18th-century Mount of Olives, the rood screen of which was removed in 1861.