Top 3 Castles around Blies-Guersviller

The sandstone capital with stylized acanthus leaves, now walled into the rectory garden of Ballweiler, is one of the few remaining architectural relics of Wecklingen's Renaissance castle. For more than two centuries, a striking building dominated the small village of Wecklingen, located in a side valley of the Blies River – a structure of which no visible traces remain above ground. This is Wecklingen Castle, built in the Renaissance style in the mid-16th century and largely forgotten since then. Built in 1555 Destroyed in 1618/48 during the Thirty Years' War Demolished in 1793 Source and photos: Stinsky, Andreas: Wecklingen Castle - A Lost Renaissance Country Estate, in: saar.geschichte 1.2017, p. 4ff, (n.p.) 2017

It is rather some remains of ruins of an ancient castle. The park where it is located is very pleasant.

Mithraeum (Latin mithraeum, plural mithraeen) is the name given to the temples of the Mithras cult. Mithraeums were usually built underground or carved into rock. A relatively small cult room was sufficient for the Mithras communities, which had only one to two dozen members. The largest known mithraeum had space for 80 believers. In contrast to Christianity, where larger churches were built in larger communities, in Mithraism the number, not the volume, was increased. At the height of the Mithras cult in the 3rd century, there were supposedly 800 mithraeums in Rome alone. However, since the individual mithraeums were usually not in use for long, this high number says nothing about the number of followers. To date, the remains of over 1000 mithraeums have been archaeologically proven throughout the entire Roman Empire.

For me this is one of the sensations in Saarbrücken! The cave and the recesses created later are still in great condition. There is also a bench under a ledge. If only it weren't for the car noise (like it was 2,000 years ago). "In pre-Christian and Roman times, a Mithraic cult was practiced on the Halberg - by the Gallo-Romans who lived here or the Roman soldiers of the nearby garrison. For this purpose, they created a barrel-vaulted mithraeum in the sandstone on the western slope of the Halberg, which is known in older literature as the "Heidenkapelle " is called. After Christianization in the 6th century, the grotto was incorporated into Christian worship. This means that the Halberg is possibly the oldest Christian place of worship in the region. The remains of this site can still be admired here and are in a relatively well-preserved condition." https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halberg_(Saarland)

The Mithras Chapel is one of the seven sights included in the Star Trail list. Definitely worth a visit

The cult of Mithras was a religion spread by the Roman soldiers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism

Mithras temple on the Halberg, a Persian/Roman mystery cult, originated in Rome/Ostia around 80 AD and spread to the north and west by Roman soldiers and officials. Worship of Mithras was often equated with Sol Invictus. He is depicted sitting on a bull. On his head he wears a Phrygian cap. A cloak symbolizes the sky and with his right hand he kills the bull. (Bull killing scene = Tauroctony) The blood from the wound is licked up by a dog and a snake. A scorpion pinches the bull's testicles. (= Creation myth - the cosmos and life are created with the killing of the bull) The animals absorb the blood/testicular fluid as an elixir of life. Next to them stands Cautes with a torch pointing upwards (= day, life) and Cautopates holds the torch pointing downwards (= night, death). Above them are depicted Sol and Luna (sun and moon). The friezes next to them represent the rock birth and the arrow miracle (shooting an arrow into the rock -> a spring springs up). The Mithras cult was practiced exclusively by men, mostly by Roman soldiers and officials. With the rise of Christianity and its declaration as the state religion (end of the 4th century AD), Mithraism was banned as a devilish cult and its places of worship were either destroyed (desecrated) or reused as Christian chapels. The sanctuaries were usually in caves, or imitated such caves above ground with barrel vaults. They were equipped with two parallel rows of seats (klinen) on which the mysthenes (cult followers) took the sacrificial offering. The consecration ceremonies were held at the altars. Every Mithras follower had to go through seven degrees of consecration (= degrees of enlightenment) before his soul could return to the universe and the planets. We don't know what the ceremonies looked like, that's the mystery......

Nicely done and another highlight of the hiking trail