Käppele
Käppele, officially the Wallfahrtskirche Mariä Heimsuchung und Schmerzhafte Muttergottes, stands above Würzburg as a Baroque pilgrimage church. Its white and yellow façade rises with several domes and onion-shaped towers.
A monumental staircase climbs from the city, crossing fourteen small chapels along the terraced Way of the Cross. Each chapel marks a station with life-sized sculptural groups by Johann Peter Wagner. According to tradition, a fisherman’s boy found a wooden Pietà beside the Main around 1642. He placed the figure in a vineyard, where reports of healings and strange lights drew pilgrims. Balthasar Neumann designed the chapel, built between 1748 and 1750. Dominikus Ickelsheimer later connected it to Würzburg with the 255-step staircase, completed between 1761 and 1769.
Inside, the original Pietà remains beside frescoes, while seventy-seven figures form theatrical scenes from Christ’s Passion. The terrace frames Würzburg below and the fortress on the opposite hill. Together, church, city, and fortress create a striking view of Würzburg’s Franconian landscape.
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Image: Michael 
Image: Michael 
Image: Michael 
Image: Michael
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Würzburg. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.