Kreuzweg Station I

Kreuzweg Station I stands in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler at the beginning of a seven-station Way of the Cross rising toward the Calvarienberg. The small stone structure marks the first step along a route shaped for devotion and quiet reflection.

Its form bridges a roadside shrine with a shallow figure niche and the chapel-like stations farther uphill. The station once stood beside a city gate, then moved when the road to the monastery was redesigned in the nineteenth century. Franciscan influence shaped this Way of the Cross, one of the Rhineland’s oldest stone examples, while its seven-part sequence predates the church’s later fourteen-station tradition. Each station once held carved stone scenes from the Passion.

A shallow niche gives this first structure its distinctive character. Around it, the path begins its measured ascent toward the Calvarienberg.