Mercury

If you make your way to the highest point of the northern Vosges, the Col du Donon, you will soon notice how historic this place is. The pass lies west of Mont Saint-Odile and can be reached from Schirmeck. In the period from the 1st to the 3rd century, flocks of pilgrims sought proximity to the gods; numerous remains of Gallo-Roman temples and god figures bear eloquent testimony to this. Its cult was Mercury, the most revered god in northeastern Gaul.

As you ascend to the summit, you will soon have a wonderful panoramic view of the gentle mountains of the Vosges Mountains. On the top you can see the outline of an ancient temple on a rocky outcrop. Although it is only a well-intentioned reconstruction from 1869, which was used as a museum until 1958, the carefully modeled building gives the place a certain consecration and draws visitors’ thoughts to the former cult content of the place. The ancient sacred street, which was once lined with temples and steles of the Celtic-Roman pantheon, is no longer recognizable. During excavations, an inscription was discovered, a vow to Mercury or the Celtic Vosegus, the god of hunting, who gave the mountain range its name, and to Hekate, the supreme goddess of the Celts in northeastern Gaul. All this clearly shows the mixing of gods imposed on the Celts by the Romans.

The Donon has served as a fortress since the Neolithic Age – small remains of a ring wall have been found. In the early Middle Ages, a Christian monastery replaced the Celtic sanctuary, but it was not possible to preserve the spirituality of the place, as was the case on neighboring Odilienberg. The ancient remains of the Donon have been forgotten for over a thousand years, and are only known as legends in the minds of the population.