Autumn hike in Sankt Andreasberg
GermanyWe picked St. Andreasberg up quite randomly on Booking.com when planning our first car trip to Harz, a mountain massif in the middle of Germany.
Friday was the only day we had a chance for a hike, as later the forecast showed us intense rain. The sun was shining bright in the morning, and the sky was blue, so I sincerely enjoyed the view from our window ☀️
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Some people have already started preparing for Helloween, one month before.
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In the late afternoon, I got a chance to explore the city alone. I had a list of places to visit, so I started by descending into a valley to take a look at the old city center.
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The very first notable thing I saw upon arrival was a structure on the opposite side of the valley. It was already dark outside, and the building had bright illumination, so I mistook it for a church. In fact, after I googled a bit, it turned out to be no church but a bell tower.
There was something unusual in how the town looked from above. Typically, the tallest building would be the church, but in St. Andreasberg, it was different. I typed "church" on Google Maps, and it showed nothing in the vicinity of the old part of the city. Only up on the hill, the Evangelical church Martinikirche towered overhead.
I started looking for a tower, and after a while, I spotted a tiny chapel, no taller than the surrounding houses. I immediately went to explore! The building was called "Kleine Kapelle"; it was a wooden church with a tiled roof and a small bell tower. I soon understood why it wasn't marked on the map: nowadays, it wasn't a church any longer.
In 1927, the Catholic "Sankt-Benwards-Kapelle" was built. Pretty soon, the local parish went up in numbers, so the building became rather tight for them. The chapel was threatened with demolition, but it was timely declared a listed monument. In 1967, the community decided to build another church in a modernist style - the Church of St. Andreas. The chapel was sold to a private owner and converted into a restaurant.
I was excited about an opportunity to have lunch under the vaults of a church, only to discover a moment later that the restaurant was unfortunately out of service. By the look of it, 2025 was their last season, and now the label "For sale" hangs on the fence. I secretly hoped it would be some kind of a mistake, especially after noticing the menu still in place, as well as the light in the kitchen (which was located in the altar area by the way). I came there the next day and confirmed they were out of business.
What a pity. Well, I suppose there were several reasons why the restaurant wasn't a success: the building was situated far from the main road, tucked away between two rather narrow streets, and was also visually concealed. The cuisine wasn't native to the region as well. If I were a tourist looking for a place to fill my stomach, and religious architecture wasn't my thing, I wouldn't even bother stopping by.
Here is what it looked like when it was just constructed:
It would be a huge miss to skip the old mining facilities of the town.