Die Via Matris

Lief, kapelletje midden in het bos met een kruisweg .... de moeite waard ...

Midden in het Westerholterwoud in GE-Buer ligt de Zeven Smartenkapel met het stationspad "Via Matris". Het is de moeite waard om te zien en een kleine omweg waard.

The route Via Matris covers 70 meters in length and has seven granite pillars. The bronze relieves of Schilcher embedded therein show Maria's seven pains around her son.
The Seven Pains Chapel is a Marien chapel in the Westerholter forest (Löchterheide) in Gelsenkirchen-Buer. Built in 1723 and renewed in 1948, the small house of God with the patronal feast of the Sorrows of Mary belongs to the parish of St. Mary of the Assumption within the parish of St. Urban. It is still used today for processions and services in the open air and for private worship. Since 2008, next to the chapel, there is the Via Matris path ("The Passion of the Mother") with bronze plaques by H. Schilcher (Oberammergau).
The chapel was founded in 1723 by the Westerholter Countess Henrika von Aschebroick to Schönebeck, perhaps in memory of her husband, who died in 1707 at the age of 50 years. In Buer it is said, however, the chapel reflects the bad conscience of Westerholter because of the decapitation of Anna Spiekermann in 1706, while in Westerholt a reference to a bloody dispute over pasture rights between the Westerholt and mountains in 1564 is produced.
At the same time as the construction of the chapel, Henrika von Aschebroick ordered an annual hail procession for the village and the estate, which is still held on the second Sunday after Corpus Christi. After the turmoil of the Seven Years War, an annual Thanksgiving procession was added.
In 1940, the chapel was severely damaged by falling trees in a hurricane. They restored members of the Kolping Family in 1948. Since then, it has repeatedly been the scene of major liturgical celebrations, such as the bishops Franz Hengsbach (1973), Heinrich Tenhumberg (1974), Reinhard Lettmann (1985), [3] Hubert Luthe (1999), [4] Felix Genn (2004) [ 5] and Franz-Josef Overbeck (2010).
In the 1990s, moisture damage necessitated a thorough renovation. A sponsoring association founded in 1998 carried out the work. On 16 September 2001, the General Prior of the Servite Order Hubert M. Moons re-consecrated the chapel. The inauguration ceremony for the "Wegeweg" on September 14, 2008 was conducted by Servitenprovinzial Gottfried M. Wolff