A baron from Haus Olpe is said to have brought a relic (a small splinter of wood) home from the Crusade of 1280. In gratitude for his rescue from Saracen captivity, he vowed to build a chapel. This relic of the True Cross has been venerated in Kürten-Olpe for centuries. It is kept in a cross-shaped reliquary, formerly housed in the Chapel of the Cross, and now in St. Margaret's Church. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was demonstrably celebrated in Kürten-Olpe in 1383.

The chapel is a single-nave, rubble-stone building with a slate-covered gable roof and a roof turret. Of the two cross-vaulted bays, the northern one is identical to the original chapel built around 1500–1527, which was spared demolition in 1898. In 1901, the southern bay with its apse was added, and at the same time, the vaults and windows were renovated in a Romanesque Revival style. The construction joint is clearly visible on the exterior.

The interior was painted and the chapel consecrated as a war memorial in 1925. The portal, dating from around 1130-1140, was located on the north side of the nave when the old church was demolished and was later moved to the Chapel of the Cross.

fitness