When France annexed the Rhine's left bank in 1797, Saint George's Chapel passed to the state. The tithes were abolished, and the pilgrimages suspended. When it was announced that the job of tearing the chapel down was to be auctioned to the highest bidder, the Heidesheim dwellers sprang to the chapel's defence: The president of the church board, the mayor and the parish priest asked the prefect of the department of Donnersberg, Jeanbon St. André, to relinquish Saint George's Chapel to the Church. The motion was granted.