Wendelstein

The Wendelstein is a 1,838-metre (6,030-foot) high mountain in the Bavarian Alps in South Germany. It belongs to the so-called Mangfall Mountains, the eastern part of the Bavarian Pre-Alps. It is the highest peak in the Wendelstein massif. On the summit of the mountain is the Wendelstein Chapel. The foundation stone of the Wendelstein Church (Wendelsteinkircherl) was laid on 1 July 1889 on a rocky ridge a hundred metres below the summit. On 20 August 1890 Germany's highest church was consecrated. It is dedicated to the Patrona Bavariae and is managed by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising as a satellite church of the parish of Maria Himmelfahrt in Brannenburg. The Wendelstein Church's description as the "highest church in Germany" is indisputable;[3][4] all other higher church buildings (such as the Zugspitze Chapel consecrated in 1981) are not churches in the ecclesiastical sense, but only chapels. Regular masses and marriage services take place in the mountain church in summer.
The little Wendelstein Church is also often called a chapel or the Wendelstein Chapel, but that is not only wrong from an ecclesiastical point of view, but also because there is actually a separate Wendelstein Chapel. This is dedicated to St. Wendelin and stands just below the summit. This summit chapel, a small wooden affair, is considerably older than the church; there are reports of it going back to the early 19th century.
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