Attraction Chapels in Leutasch

A valley with 20 chapels, a wayside shrine, and numerous wayside crosses – this is how the Leutaschtal presents itself.

Description

The Leutasch valley is a valley with 20 different chapels and a shrine. Impressive numbers, considering the fact that at the time when most of chapels were built, the valley counted less than 1000 inhabitants. There is a reason that the number of chapels bear witness to the piety around here - the size of the local administrative area stretches over more than 20 kilometres.

The hamlets in the Leutasch valley are a long way away from the two parish churches. (St. Magdalena in Oberleutasch, St. Johannes d. Täufer in Unterleutasch)  At that time there were only a few houses in the valley so almost every hamlet built their own chapel, in order that evensong and rosaries could be shared with their neighbours in the summer. The chapel bells had an additional purpose: if somebody died in the hamlet, this was signalled by the ringing of the bell. There were also peals for different kinds of weather to warn them of storms in the days before TV and radio were invented.