Kaysersberg-Vignoble: Pretty Buildings and Human Skulls
24 May 2018
Last time we visited Keysersberg it was pretty much on a whim. So many Alsatian locals had recommended it to us that we couldn’t possibly pass it up; but as it wasn’t a scheduled visit, we needed to find some time to fit it in. So it goes, sometimes. We stopped by for a couple hours, saw some of the town and climbed the castle, and then we had to move on. This time however we made sure to plan a full day there! We parked at the same lot we found last time, an easy spot along the river over by the school, and it was a very quick walk to all the action!
We crossed the river at a spot marked on the map as Ancien Lavoir, which actually translates to “old laundry”. A little bridge crossed over the river where rows of houses stood right against the edge of the shallow water. It’s a really interesting spot, one that shows the beauty of a modern destination village yet still shows the history of a village where life was not always as prosperous and easy as it is today. But that is just the thing with many of these ancient towns, the poor rustic history adds so much to the beauty we see now, almost to suggest one would not be as awe inspiring without the other. We took a moment to appreciate the spot before moving along, where a few steps further past the bridge and we were on Grand Rue, the main road right through town. There was a bit more bustle in the town than last time, as all the shops were open and busy.
We followed the Grand Rue up to the cathedral in town, the Eglise Kaysersberg. We walked through the little war memorial park behind the church, which had graves of soldiers who died fighting there in WWII and highlighting the little-known fact that many North African Muslims fought and died for France’s liberation. The park was full of quotes from Albert Schweitzer, the theologian, philosopher, and doctor who was originally from Kaysersberg. It was a nice memorial that served as a living continuation of Schweitzer’s push to understand others and reflect upon our own impact in the world.
There is a little gated dead-end alley behind the Eglise. It doesn’t look like much, just a small, dark empty space between two close buildings... but if you read our past post on Kaysersberg, then you know why we sought this out again. Last time, we peeked through a little basement window in an alley and found a wall made from human skulls and bones. It was the most surreal thing we have found on our adventures thus far, and at the time we weren’t really prepared for the encounter. This time we intended to find it again.
We came upon the gate to the little dead-end alley and found it closed. You could only imagine how many people have walked past this spot, saw nothing of interest there and kept walking, totally oblivious of what lay just a few feet away from them! That’s not how we operate; curiosity may be what kills the cat, but it also leads to some amazing adventures! I tried the gate and even though it was a bit tight, it wasn’t locked and finally opened with a creak. We tucked into the dark alley, found the old window, and this time we were ready...
Before us was the wall of skulls, as eerie and surreal as we remembered.
As we had learned since finding them the first time, the bones are remnants of a mass burial from the plague days. There are some other theories I’ve seen, but this is the one that pops up the most, and also seems most plausible. There isn’t any information or signs just sitting there about them though, so everything we’ve found on the origin is really just based on Google searches or asking around. Apparently, they were scattered in the church basement (presumably where the bodies were left) then arranged into this wall at a later date. You could imagine in the plague days that there were more bodies than there were people to deal with them, so it isn’t a surprise they were just left in the basement. I’m not sure why they weren’t just buried in a memorial at that later date and instead were made in this macabre wall that is mostly out of reach from the public. Between people dying in the plague, long periods of poverty, and of course a couple world wars, it’s not really a surprise that knowledge of small intricacies of these villages may have been lost to time. Whatever the story may be, there exists a wall of human skulls and bones in the village of Kaysersberg. It’s a macabre thing for sure... and we got to see it!
We followed the main street along, doing a bit of shop-hopping as we went. We got a coffee and crepe at KaysersBier, a pub with outdoor seating and a really sexy sign. We popped into a kitchen store where Beth got some French cookie cutters, found a craft beer store where we picked up a few locals, and got a couple mini-kugelhopf from a bakery. Small town touristy stuff that you have to do, and I just can’t get enough of my kugelhopf!
We made our way back to KaysersBier for a drink. I had a nice house amber while Beth had a cider that was interestingly served in a bowl. We kicked back for more simple enjoyment. Sitting out on the street, looking over a courtyard, and watching all the people walk by is definitely a way these European towns need to be experienced. It was a really pleasant day, and we slowed down the pace of life just a little bit. After all, when you just had a couple hundred human skulls watching you from a basement window, you have earned a bit of down time!
The Alsace region is bordered on the east by the Rhine River, and on the west by the Vosges Mountains. Most our time spent in Alsace is on the western side right along the edge of the mountain line, usually in the small valleys between the ridges. We typically go up into the mountains to climb the castles, but today we are venturing up to villages that were perched up on the mountain rather than down in the valley below. Both villages had something specific we came to find.
On we go to the mountains!
