The park of the pilgrimage monastery in Blieskastel is something very special. For the Capuchin order, pilgrimage sites like the one in Blieskastel are quite common. They do not focus so much on garden art. Rather, their purpose is to explain the pilgrimage and serve for processions.
The park in Blieskastel was created around 1930 on an area of the monastery garden with fruit trees, i.e. at the time when the monastery building was completed. The planner of the monastery park with its original "complex network of paths" is unknown, but the artist of the features and statues is: it was the sculptor Karl Riemann. He created impressive scenes depicting special events in the life of Francis of Assisi - such as his stigmatisation or his sermon to the animals. For him, animals were animated creatures that, like humans, were creatures of God.
In the 1970s, the network of paths was changed, as were some of the arrangements. For example, the massive cross with the inscription "It is finished" used to stand on an open space, but now stands on a small elevation. The fountain also used to have a different design - with a crown made of quarry stones and a cross on top. Another work of art is the fountain with the statue of St Konrad von Parzham, who is now somewhat off to the side, holding his hands protectively over a miner and a peasant woman.
The construction of the monastery seemed necessary in the 1920s because the flow of pilgrims to the Pfeilenmadonna was steadily increasing. It was originally located on a hill near Gräfinthal and, according to tradition, was the reason for the founding of the Wilhelmite monastery there. Robbers shot at this vesper image and blood flowed from the bullet holes. This scene is also vividly recreated in the monastery park. This "Brudermannsklause" and the Madonna of the Arrow in the chapel frame the monastery hill, whose buildings, including the Stations Hall and the figures of the thief, are listed buildings. Anyone looking for a place of peace, contemplation and spirituality can find it in the monastery park.
