Project 04Timber and stone restoration47°37′59″N 012°58′59″E

Stillwater Chapel

Client: Parish of St. Leonhard
Location: Bavaria, Germany
Year: 2022
Area: 410 m²
Duration: 14 months
Structural engineer: Kessler Tragwerk, Munich

01 — The projectBavaria, Germany, 2022

Restoration is mostly listening. The chapel told us what it needed.

Stillwater Chapel has stood on the bank of the Ache since 1712. By 2019 the spire was leaning eleven centimetres to the east, and water ran through the nave walls every spring.

We lifted the spire on a temporary steel frame, replaced the rotten base plates with oak felled in the same valley, and repointed the rubble walls with a hot lime mortar matched to the original.

The timber boathouse beside the chapel was rebuilt board by board, every plank numbered, stored and re-laid. The parish rang the bell again at Easter 2022.

Site 47°37′59″N 012°58′59″E

Weathered timber boards in black and white — Fig. 02 — Boathouse boards, numbered and re-laid

Fig. 03 — Ground floor plan1:200

Detail of Stillwater Chapel — Fig. 04 — Detail of the finished building

02 — Materials and specifications06 items

Structure: Rubble stone walls, oak roof frame
Spire: Lifted, re-levelled, new oak base plates
Mortar: Hot-mixed lime, matched by analysis
Roof: Larch shingles, hand-split
Timber: Oak from the same valley, air-dried
Consent: Bavarian State Office for Monuments

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