Alsfeld buried!Chapel and cemetery on the Frauenberg are established

On June 5, 1365, a document was issued at the then seat of the chancery of Landgrave Heinrich II in Kassel, which – bearing the seals of the Landgrave and the priest Stephan von Alsfeld – contained a donation by the Landgrave to the “dear faithful, the aldermen and the congregation of our town Alsfeld”. The landgrave gave the town the area on the hill next to the watchtower “die Warte”, called “Silbirbul”, as well as the right to build there “for the worship of the almighty God and his mother, the glorious Virgin Mary and for the salvation of their own and their ancestors’ souls a cemetery as well as a chapel there”.

For the town and its parish priest Stephen, who also held the position of Rentmeister Finanzverwalter) and was a confidant of the Landgrave, there were several reasons to wish for a new cemetery outside the town walls. Firstly, the increase in population, secondly, the burial place at the churchyard, which had become too small due to the reconstruction of the Walpurgis Church, and thirdly, the fear of burials inside the city walls in view of the increasing plague epidemics; the last one in 1348/49 had claimed a large number of victims. MNic