Early Modern Age Archives

Early modern period

The stone crucifixes from the 17th and 18th century all along the “Petersberger Bittweg”, the ancient procession way from Königwinter city to the chapel on Mount Petersberg, remind us of the early modern period in the Siebengebirge. . The years that the locals set up these crucifixes correlate with years of wars and plagues in the Rhineland.

Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists

The Rhineland around 1530, the time of the Protestant Reformation. Although the Rhineland remained Catholic, there were Lutheran, Anabaptist and Calvinist congregations.

Absolutism and wars of succession

Both rulers in the Rhineland, the Duke of Berg and as the Prince-Elector of Cologne, were drawn into the European wars of succession. Holy Roman Empire, at the end of the 17th century. After the Thirty Years’ War, large parts of Central Europe lay in ashes.