Kappler Stöckl

In the meadows of Reischach, on the plateau above Brunico, the Kappler Stöckl is a small chapel whose present form dates to 1681. Its paintings depict a local founding legend.

Why it matters

Tradition holds that the chapel was built in 1681 by a member of the Prack zu Asch zu Angerburg family, owners of the nearby Angerburg castle. The legend tells of a castle lord punished for a dissolute life with a child born with a dog's body and a human face; he vowed to the Mother of God to build a chapel if the child died. The vow produced the Stöckl, and its walls still tell the story in pictures.

What to notice

The two apse paintings depict the Annunciation and the Visitation, and on their right side appears the figure of the dog with a human face, commemorating the legend. A banderole records that Matthias Jakob Hueber, "now Angerlechner zu Reischach", had the painting made in 1682. The chapel's oldest treasure was a wooden Mary with the Christ child from the last quarter of the fifteenth century, made in the circle of Michael Pacher. The feast of the Visitation on 2 July was formerly kept here with a festive Stöcklkirchtag.

Context and history

The chapel stands in the open fields of Reischach, a village of the municipality of Brunico on the slopes below Plan de Corones. Its 1681 rebuilding fixed the form seen today, and the paintings of 1682 gave the founding tradition visual form.