Widensolen Grotto

The Grotto, dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, was constructed to resemble the famous sanctuary. It is situated on the edge of the Kastenwald forest, close to a spring dedicated to Saint Germain de Grandval. The spring, which for a long time was attributed miraculous powers, apparently sprang up after the burial of the saint in the forest in the 8th century.

In the 14th century, monks from the Abbey-Church of Pairis erected a chapel near the spring. This chapel was abandoned in 1746, after the murder of two Franciscan hermits who were guarding it. It was destroyed in 1788 and replaced by a small house the walls of which were covered with ex votos.
That house was itself destroyed during the Great War. We owe the Grotto to a priest, Georges Ehrhard, who presided over its construction in 1958.