Adlerstein (Würzberg)

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View of the stele in the forest near Würzberg.

The so-called Adlerstein near Michelstadt - Würzberg in the Odenwaldkreis is a land monument made of sandstone , which was supposed to remind of the alleged find of a Roman legionary eagle . The stone was soon after the discovery in 1820 under the Erbacher Count I. Franz erected. The find quickly turned out to be a fake. The monument is still a bit remote today in a forest not far from the Odenwald Limes .

history

Count Franz I, who was an important collector of antiquities at the time, published the find in the Curiositäten and provided material for two publications in the Kunst-Blatt, supplement to the Morgenblatt for educated classes . The eagle was the highlight of the Count's well-known collection of antiquities in Erbach Castle , where there were already three reconstructed standard symbols in a weapon arrangement in the audience room.

The count was informed early on that the piece could only be a forgery, for example by Christian Kehrer (1775–1869), who worked at the Erbacher Hof as a painter, private secretary and archivist. In a handwritten report that was preserved in the same year, Kehrer noted that the piece was missing the real Roman type, the mass was made of solid brass instead of Roman bronze, and that a crack, the patina and the gilding looked fake.

Kehrer then fell out of favor with the count, which dragged on into the winter of the year and could only be resolved after the approval of Charlotte zu Isenburg-Birstein, the count's sister. Presumably the forgery was staged to please the aging count. His close colleagues come into question for this, especially the forester Friedrich Louis, whose son brought the find over. Louis is also believed to be responsible for the robbery of Cannae's helmet . It may also be assumed that Johann Friedrich Knapp was complicit , but at that time he was already serving as a judge of higher appeals in Darmstadt.

The fake legionary eagle was removed from the collections together with the other standards by Count Franz's grandson, Count Eberhard XV., In the middle of the 19th century. The affair - with the exception of Kehrer's for a few months - did little harm to the relationship between those involved and the Count. On the monument to Count Franz in front of the Erbacher Schloss, inaugurated in 1874, medallions with portraits of his three closest employees are embedded in the base: Knapp, Louis and Kehrer.

monument

The stone is located about two kilometers southwest of Michelstadt-Würzberg away from accessible paths in a high forest in the Ernsbach forest area of the city of Erbach in the Schachert forest district , in the eight-hectare parcel Flur 7, parcel 5, about 500 meters west of the former forester's lodge Jägertor am Red hump of Würzberg and is also shown on several topographic maps about 150 m away from the Würzberg district. The neighboring Würzberg forest department bears the name Adlerschlag in topographic maps based on the find and was formerly part of the Erbach Wildlife Park Eulbach . After two reductions in 1848 and 1912, however, the forest is no longer part of the wildlife park.

The stele is an excellent small monument in the classicism style . It consists of red sandstone with a rectangular cross-section of 62 × 34 cm and is 140 cm high. At the top, a flat pyramid closes the stele. On the front side there is an inscription that begins with the elaborate initial A. It is:

At
this point
MDCCCXX
the Roman
Legion Eagle was
found

literature

Web links

Commons : Adlerstein  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Curiosities 1820, pp. 222–225.
  2. ↑ June 29, 1820 and September 11
  3. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz: The Adlerstein near Würzberg (Odenwaldkreis). P. 114f. Annex 1.
  4. ↑ the term shock see Impact (Forestry)
  5. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz: The Adlerstein near Würzberg (Odenwaldkreis). P. 107 and note 3
  6. ↑ Description based on Dietwulf Baatz: The Adlerstein near Würzberg (Odenwaldkreis). P. 107.

Coordinates: 49 ° 38 '36.5 "  N , 9 ° 3' 36.6"  E