Wietze: Stechinelli Chapel

In the picturesque town of Wieckenberg, just 2 km from Wietze,
lies a fairy-tale chapel. Built in 1692, it looks like a farmhouse from the
outside. On the inside, however, it features stunning Baroque architecture that
is well preserved to this day.

History
of the Stechinelli Chapel

The fate of the builder - Francesco Maria
Capellini (1640 -1694), known as Stechinelli (pronounced Steckinelli) is just
as fabulous as the chapel’s interior

At the age of fifteen, he came to the court
of Duke Georg Wilhelm von Celle and rose to the rank of Hereditary Postmaster General
of the Guelph Principalities with the Imperial Free State. He acquired legendary
wealth and several manors, including the manor in Wieckenberg, through a lively
trade in wine and cloth and real estate transactions. Here you can see a
Baroque style pleasure garden, of which a Baroque fountain has remained, as
well as the courtyard gate and the chapel he had built according to his designs
in 1692, but whose completion in 1699 he did not live to see.

According to legend, his wife, who had the
building completed, is said to have immortalised their 13 children in the
ceiling paintings...

Would
you like to visit the Stechinelli Chapel?

The chapel is open to visitors on request at
the times indicated. Please refer to the notice board at the chapel to see who
you can contact spontaneously to arrange a viewing. At the weekend (except in
the time from 1 to 3 p.m.) you should try to contact the verger by calling 05146-2516.

Services usually take place every second
Sunday of the month and on secondary church holidays (Easter Monday, Whit
Monday...).

For
further information and requests for guided tours, please contact the church
office directly by calling 05146-8443.

By
the way:

If you follow the sign of the scallops
mussel in Suedheide, you will also reach the Stechinelli chapel in Wieckenberg.
Hikers on the Way of
St. James Pilgrimage can stamp their pilgrim
pass here.

"On
the trail of the Postmaster " s
the name of the route of a new themed cycle path through the upper Oertze
valley, at the southernmost end of which is the Stechinelli Chapel. Signposted
with a post horn, cyclists can embark on a fascinating search for traces of
cultural history.