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Michelskirch

Beschreibung

The first parish church* of Piesport stood here in the middle of the hillside on the left-hand side of the Moselle - above the village - and according to a church register from around 1350, it had the status of a "matrix ecclesia" ("mother church" for the neighbouring villages). In Roman times, there was a shrine to the local god Mercurius Bigontius here, to whom the ford across the Moselle was dedicated. 
In Christian times, it was replaced by a place of worship with the patronage of St Michael, which was transferred to the parish church on the banks of the Moselle when it was rebuilt in 1776. 
The old mountain church, first mentioned in 1295, increasingly lost its status over the following centuries for practical reasons to the church "zu den 12 Aposteln" (to the 12 apostles) in the village, which is also named as the main church in the visitation protocol of 1569. Its patrocinium was later replaced by that of Sebastian, the patron saint of the plague (today: St Sebastian's Chapel).    In 1609, baptisms were still administered in the old church on the hillside and services were held on high holidays. 
Unfortunately, in the 90s of the 20th century, the immediate surroundings of this ancient place of worship were remodelled in the course of land consolidation. 
Unfortunately, the immediate surroundings of this ancient place of worship were so heavily remodelled in the course of land consolidation that the rest of the church now lies in the middle of the vineyards and nothing of the old cemetery that once surrounded the building can be seen.