The history of the presbytery
The presbytery was built between 1786 and 1788 - immediately after the era of Maria Theresia of Habsburg, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, Duchess of Brabant, Limburg, Luxembourg and Gelderen - and financed by the parish priest Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein (1756–1828), who came from a wealthy and influential family in Ehnen.
This imposing residence, situated opposite the church, was home to eight successive parish priests of Moutfort: Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein (1782-1828), Pierre Hermes (1828-1872), Johann Baptist Prost (1873-1900), Hubert Keipes (1900-1913), Johannes Weis (1913–1932), Pierre Koenig (1932-1956), Maurice Beringer (1956-1967) and Roger Schmit (1967-1982). The parish priests of Moutfort who succeeded them all resided in other places.
From the start of Father Maurice Beringer’s tenure, in 1956-1957, major renovation work was undertaken both inside and outside the presbytery. In particular, the high wall in front of the building, as well as the barn and stables adjoining the gables, were demolished. A garage was built on the left-hand side and the old lime trees in the courtyard were removed.
On 15 November 1986, a gendarmerie brigade was stationed in the presbytery, which was unoccupied at the time. The gendarmerie commander’s accommodation was established on the first floor, whilst the offices were on the ground floor. Following the merger of the gendarmerie and the police in 2000, the building became a police station serving the upper Syre valley, and retained this function until 2019.
The separation of Church and State, implemented on the basis of three agreements concluded on 26 January 2015 between the Luxembourg State and the Catholic Church of Luxembourg, providing, in particular, for the abolition of denominational religious education and the gradual reduction of direct funding for priests’ salaries, as well as the Act of 13 February 2018 on the management of religious buildings and other assets relating to the Catholic faith, led to profound changes. The church councils - parish bodies established by Napoleon Bonaparte through a decree of 30 December 1809 - were thus abolished. Their assets were subsequently consolidated within the Fund for the Management of Religious Buildings and Other Assets Relating to the Catholic Faith, placed under the control of the Archdiocese, in order to centralise the management of the assets and relieve the burden on local authorities. As part of this separation of Church and State, a deed drawn up on 8 January 2020 by Notary Pierre Metzler in Grevenmacher established that the presbytery, registered in the Land Registry under the name of “Moutfort. Le Presbytère”, had belonged to the parish of Moutfort for more than thirty years through continuous and uncontested possession. As a result, it passed into the assets of the “Kierchefong”. By a deed dated 4 July 2024 drawn up by the Notary Mireille Hames in Mersch, the non-profit-making organisation “Oeuvres paroissiales Contern Walburga” purchased the presbytery from the Fund. On 29 July 2024, the State, by agreement and for a period of thirty years, granted this same association a right of use enabling it to build on two neighbouring plots, situated next to and behind the presbytery, without, however, transferring ownership of the plots to it. These plots were incorporated into the project.
The non-profit-making organisation “Oeuvres paroissiales Contern Walburga” also acted as project owner for the major refurbishment and extension works. These works enabled the Ministry of National Education, Children and Youth - the tenant of the premises - to establish a socio-educational centre named the “Centre Wellenstein”, designed to accommodate young people in difficulty. To achieve this, the presbytery itself was completely gutted: only the four external walls and the roof were retained. The garage on the left and the annexe on the right were demolished. The garden at the rear was completely removed to make way for an underground car park. The flat roof of the car park was turned into a green roof. The main building now houses the administration for the entire centre. The two new annexe buildings, constructed on the left and right, comprise accommodation for two groups of boys, with educational support provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein, who funded the presbytery, and his family
The Moutfort presbytery was built and funded between 1786 and 1788 by Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein, undoubtedly the most influential parish priest in the history of the parish of Moutfort, which is first mentioned in 898 in a document from the Abbey of Saint-Maximin in Trier. From 1782 to 1828, he led this parish in the upper Syre Valley for 46 years. It is one of the oldest parishes in Luxembourg.
Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein was born on 2 June 1756 in Ehnen. He was the fourth of six children of Jean Nicolas Wellenstein and Appolonia Schausten. His family home, situated directly on the banks of the Moselle, was the stately residence in which several generations of the Wellenstein family had lived since 1650. This very wealthy family played a decisive role in the economic and cultural development of the Moselle region. For centuries, some of its members held important positions in the political and judicial spheres. Over time, the family continually strengthened its position and increased its fortune through a carefully considered marriage strategy.
The importance and standing of the Wellenstein family in the society of the time are illustrated, in particular, by the fact that they had their own coat of arms as early as the 16th century. According to some heraldists, the three silver crescents featured on the coat of arms could be interpreted as recognition of the merits of this deeply Catholic family - which regularly counted priests and nuns among its members - during the wars against the Muslims.
In his capacity as parish priest of Moutfort, Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein did not merely have a new presbytery built after the previous one had been severely damaged by fire. He also had Moutfort’s first school built opposite the new presbytery and right next to the cemetery; its running costs were, initially, funded entirely by the parish priest. The school ceased to operate in 1828, when the parish of Moutfort no longer had a curate. To the left of the presbytery, Wellenstein also had a house built for the curate; when the parish of Moutfort no longer had a curate, this house then served as accommodation for the schoolmaster. The building still stands today.
The first decade of Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein’s ministry in Moutfort was particularly eventful. During the summer of 1792, the Prussian army and French émigré troops passed through the region on their way to France, with some of them being quartered in the presbytery. In 1795, Luxembourg was incorporated into the new French Republic under the name “Département des Forêts”. All ecclesiastical and seigneurial property was then seized and placed under sequestration. As Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein, being a clergyman, refused to take the republican oath demanded by the revolutionary government, he was forced to go into hiding for some time on nearby farms or in the woods. Otherwise, he would have been deported to the Île de Ré, on the French Atlantic coast near La Rochelle, where, during the French Revolution, around a thousand priests who had refused to swear allegiance to the Republic were detained in the Vauban citadel of Saint-Martin. According to a local tradition that was still recounted to us at primary school during local history lessons, the villagers are said to have replied to the French soldiers who were asking where Father Wellenstein was and searching for him that he was “on the Île de Ré”. In reality, this expression is said to have referred to a small island situated in the middle of a marshy area in the “Bierk” forest, where the priest is said to have sometimes hidden. It is said to have been given the fictitious name “Ré”, in reference to the real Île de Ré, in the department of Charente-Maritime, where the recalcitrant priests, considered “enemies of the Republic”, were imprisoned.
Thanks in particular to his family’s connections and following a petition invoking the provisions of the Concordat, Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein was able officially to resume his duties as parish priest in Moutfort in 1801. A solution was also found for the restitution of the confiscated property.
Joseph-Zacharias Wellenstein died on 8 March 1828 at the presbytery in Moutfort. He was buried beneath the sacristy of the parish church. An epitaph (gravestone) commemorates the work of this extraordinary clergyman, who bequeathed to the Moutfort parish council a considerable estate, comprising the presbytery, the priest’s house, the former school and approximately eight hectares of land.
Following the death of Alfred Wellenstein in 1896, the last male descendant of the Ehnen branch of the family, the estate passed to the Servais family. In 1916, the notary Ernest Würth of Wormeldange became the new owner, before the State purchased the entire estate in 1974. Currently, the property, commonly known as the “Wäinhaus”, is undergoing renovation and extension work with a view to housing the “Moselle Tourism and Wine Centre”.
Distinguished visitors to the presbytery
Over the course of its some 240-year history, the Moutfort presbytery has welcomed several distinguished visitors, all of whom were linked in one way or another to European history.
The presbytery welcomed a distinguished visitor very early on. In 1792, against the backdrop of the French Revolution, France had gone to war against Austria and Prussia. When the Prussian army set out on its campaign against France, accompanied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was acting, in a sense, as a “war correspondent”, King Frederick William II took up quarters at the Moutfort Presbytery, and subsequently at a military camp near the Pläitrenger Haff, where the Duke of Brunswick was staying. It is more than likely that Goethe too passed through the presbytery where the King of Prussia was staying. It is, however, less certain that the famous Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who became famous in 1815 for his part in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, also stayed briefly at the presbytery in Moutfort or at the military camp near the Pläitrenger Haff.
Following the liberation of the City of Luxembourg by the US Army on 10 September 1944, and as the army continued its advance through the Moselle Valley towards Nazi Germany, the presbytery at Moutfort became the headquarters of “Task Force Reed” of the 2nd Cavalry Group (Mechanized), which had been established in 1836. This US Army unit had landed in Normandy in July 1944 as part of General Patton’s Third Army. It was commanded by Colonel Charles H. Reed (1901–1980).
Regarding Colonel Reed, it is worth mentioning an interesting episode which illustrates just how small the world is. A few months after his time in Moutfort, on the orders of General George S. Patton, he led a mission in South-Eastern Europe which remained relatively unknown in Luxembourg for a long time, but which is of historical significance. It concerned the famous white Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Bred by the Habsburgs since the 16th century, these horses are still counted amongst Austria’s cultural emblems today.
After the “Anschluss” - the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938 - the Lipizzaner stud farm at Piber, in Styria, was placed under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin, whilst the Spanish Riding School in Vienna came under the command of the Wehrmacht High Command. In 1942, all the Lipizzaner horses from Piber, along with those from other stud farms in territories then under Nazi control, were transferred to the small Bohemian village of Hostau (Hostouň). The Spanish Riding School itself was not evacuated until the spring of 1945, due to the bombing of Vienna.
On 28 April 1945, American troops reached Hostau, in Czechoslovakia. Shortly afterwards, in the final days of the Second World War, a spectacular operation was carried out by the 2nd Cavalry Group. The unit’s initial mission was to capture the town and free Allied prisoners of war (POWs). Colonel Reed’s soldiers found hundreds of prisoners there, as well as several hundred horses, including the famous Lipizzaner stallions. When General Patton learnt that these horses were in danger of falling into the hands of Soviet troops, he personally worked to secure their rescue. The director of the Hostau stud farm, Lieutenant-Colonel Hubert Rudofsky, along with other German officers, had also secretly contacted the American command for the same purpose. The rescue operation, known as “Operation Cowboy”, was launched at the end of April 1945. Colonel Charles H. Reed was in charge of this mission, which involved leading the large herd of Austrian thoroughbreds from Czechoslovakia to Schwarzenberg in Bavaria, behind American lines. A few days later, the Americans handed over the 215 horses to Major Alois Podhajsky, director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. During a memorable demonstration, he placed the Lipizzaners under the protection of the US Army, thereby ensuring the survival of this equestrian institution with its rich tradition. This extraordinary operation also inspired Walt Disney to make the film “Miracle of the White Stallions” (“The Great Return”), released in 1963.
To understand General Patton’s interest in the fate of the Lipizzaner horses, it is important to know that he was himself a keen horseman and practised dressage. In 1912, he took part in the Stockholm Olympic Games, competing in the modern pentathlon.
When the Spanish Riding School of Vienna performed in Luxembourg in 2002 - for the first time in its history - to mark the launch of a European tour, the author of this article felt it only natural to point out to the Austrian ambassador at the time, Dr Christian Strohal, that the saviour of the Lipizzaner horses was laid to rest just a few kilometres as the crow flies from La Coque, on the Kirchberg. On 14 November 2002, a delegation from the Spanish Riding School, some of whose members were in riding attire, accompanied the Austrian ambassador to the American military cemetery in Hamm to lay a wreath on the grave of General George S. Patton as a sign of posthumous gratitude. This tribute was certainly also intended for Colonel Reed, who had established his headquarters at the presbytery of Moutfort, not far from this memorial site, several decades earlier.
Another figure who went on to become famous, who undoubtedly stayed at Colonel Reed’s presbytery in Moutfort during the Second World War, is the American war photographer Tony Vaccaro, who took several historic photographs of the conflict. He also took a number of photographs of Moutfort in 1944 and 1945. After the war, he became a renowned fashion and lifestyle photographer and worked for leading magazines in the United States. Tony Vaccaro, who had been enlisted in 1943 as a private and was then an amateur photographer, died at his home in Long Island City in December 2022, a few days after celebrating his 100th birthday.
