La Petite-Pierre - Église simultanée Notre-Dame

The Lützelstein castle (Lützelstein - Little Stone - Petit Pierre) was built by the Count of Blieskastel and claimed by the Bishop of Strasbourg in 1223. The Count successfully defended it.

In 1533, Lützelstein county was passed to the Palatinate-Zweibrücken and from there passed on to the Count Palatine of Veldenz.

After the line got extinct in 1694 Lützelstein was returned to Palatinate-Zweibrücken, but at that time it was a French fief, so it was de facto ruled by the Kingdom of France. Vauban expanded its fortress. In 1801 Lützelstein county was formally annexed by France and was part of the Bas-Rhin department in 1801. After that, the fortress was again expanded, but after the Franco-Prussian War in 1872 it was partly demolished by the Prussians.

Since 1801 Lützelstein shared the fate of Alsace. It was German, French, German, French - and changed its name from Lützestein to La Petite-Pierre back and forth.

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A church existed here probably already in the 13th century. This got replaced by a Gothic building in the early 15th century. Of this church, only the choir survived, the nave was built in the 19th century. Reformation after the Lutheran confession was introduced in 1558.
After 1680, when Lützelinden had become French, a Catholic parish was admitted, but it was ruled, that in villages with only one church this should be used "simultaneously", by both denominations.

The Gothic choir still has frescoes from the early 15th century. After the Reformation, these paintings got whitewashed. They were discovered in 1864 and restored in the 1960s. There were at least two memorials in the church, that got both destroyed during/after the French Revolution. These are the remains of one of them.