It was a Sunday morning, and the only way up was on foot. In traditional dress, with children, with instruments. Up top stood the new chapel of Scheyern Abbey, the valley behind it.
I got up there just before ten and stayed until nearly two. What you read here and see below is all from that day.
The service and the consecration of the altar
It started around eleven. Abbot Markus Eller of Scheyern Abbey led the service and consecrated the altar, with the Bayrischzell brass band playing. Holy water was carried through the rows, the litany was sung. One sentence from the sermon stayed with me.
Afterwards nobody headed straight back down. People sat at the alm for a long while.
What kind of chapel it is
Walls of natural stone, topped by a shingled roof of larch. So it doesn't sit among the old alpine buildings like something foreign, but looks as though it has belonged there for a while.
Inside it is plain. The wooden ceiling fans out like a wheel, with a round window at its centre. The altar is green stone. On the south side a glass front opens onto the valley.
It is meant as a place to pray, to come together, and to pause quietly along the way.
Why here of all places
The chapel was built for the 950th anniversary of Bayrischzell, and there is a reason for that. In 1076 Countess Haziga founded a monastery on the site of today's Bayrischzell. The community moved several times and settled in Scheyern in 1119. The Geitauer Alm has belonged to the abbey since 2015. So the chapel stands where the shared story began.
Photos from that morning
The film
A good minute: the walk up, the consecration, the view from up there.
Thank you
Many people carried this day. The monastic community of Scheyern, the Bayrischzell brass band, the Bergwacht mountain rescue of the Leitzach valley, and everyone who helped out. And those you never got to see that morning, because they were busy behind the scenes.
