After visiting Helferskirchen, we drove to the nearby town of Wirges, where the locals call themselves "Wirgesers". The population of Wirges is about 5200 people so it is larger than Helferskirchen.
We drove to St. Boniface Catholic Church, which was built in 1885. It is commonly known as Westwalder Dom. The church is located at Kirchstrasse 6 and belongs to the diocese of Limburg.
The church doors were unlocked so we happily went inside to take a peak. We took photos of the beautiful stained glass windows and ornate figurines above the altars. We also walked around the outside grounds where there is a grotto with a statue of the Blessed Mother, and some ancillary buildings including Bonifatius Haus (which looked like a church hall with meeting rooms) and a garden area.
There was no cemetery on the grounds nor one listed on our GPS for the town of Wirges. According to FindAGrave.com,, over 200 people were buried in Katholische Friedhof Wirges. According to Family Search.org, most of the older German graves have been replaced with newer deceased persons. This makes me wonder what they did with the older graves' remains. Also, what happened to the former cemeteries that are no longer there? I am thinking that the churches used to own a lot more property surrounding their current church building (which probably included a church cemetery) but through the years that land was sold off. Perhaps this is one of those mysteries I may never solve.
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