The mine chapel
A mine chapel is first depicted on a sketch of the mine made by Hauzeur around 1729.
This drawing did not serve as an exact representation of the mining operation. It was merely attached to a petition addressed to the Elector of Trier for the granting of water rights for the construction of pokeworks.The inscription in the drawing near the chapel reads: "Chapel built by Mr. Hauzeur on the Linsenberg" and in the text part to the drawing under A it reads: "Chapel built by Mr. Hauzeur, where the miners pray daily from four to five o'clock in the morning before starting work."
Another reference to the existence of the miners' chapel can be found in a stock book of the Düppenweiler parish. Here the following is recorded: "Two candlesticks from the Düppenweiler mine, copper, dark yellow in color, came from the mine chapel anno 1730 to the parish church of Düppenweiler." In the map of Hauzeur, all houses, tunnels and shafts as well as the mine chapel, the village church and the church ruins in the destroyed old village (Oberweiler) are shown uniformly, so that only limited conclusions could be drawn from this about the design and construction of the mine chapel.
The Förderverein Kupferbergwerk Düppenweiler therefore decided to build the chapel according to other historical models as a wooden block construction and to provide it with the roof covering customary at that time, the Bieberschwanz clay tiles. The bell tower is entirely made of copper in reference to the local mining industry. The construction works were carried out by the forestry office of the municipality. The bell was cast on November 23, 1995 in the bell foundry Mabilon & Co in Saarburg. The bell was consecrated on St. Barbara's Day, December 4, 1995, in the catholic parish church of St. Leodegar in Düppenweiler. The mine chapel was blessed by Father Siegfried Elbert on December 8, 1995.
