Altar stone latrop
The listed altar stone in the Grubental near Latrop (town of Schmallenberg ) is intended to remind of an old pagan sacrificial site.
history
It is a stone slab standing vertically in the Schladebach at the upper edge of a small dammed lake.
According to an old legend, a Drude , who was in high regard as a priestess and prophetess among the mountain dwellers, is said to have stayed in the small forest clearing . She once offered burnt offerings to the god Wotan on the high altar stone . The pagans who lived in the mountains, who still clung to the faith of their ancestors, came here to get consolation and hope from her. Here they were safe from the Christians and could worship their gods undisturbed. They built a sacrificial altar from heavy stones. Then they brought in a flawless foal that had not yet pulled a wagon or carried a saddle. Before the celebration began, they put guards on all paths and roads so that no unwanted person would disturb the sacred celebration. They now greeted the Drude in awe, who was doing the sacred service in the long flowing linen robe. The men who stood around the altar in a wide circle with swords and shields devotedly watched the activities of the wise priestess.
After the sacrificial meal was over, they separated and retreated to their homes on hidden paths. But since the doctrine of the new Christian faith found more and more adherents, the Drude finally emigrated; the altar stone collapsed over time.
At the pagan site, monks from the nearby Grafschaft monastery erected a wooden memorial cross next to the altar stones around 1737 to 1739 as a reminder of the re-establishment of the town of Latrop, which fell desolate in the Soest feud around 1444. The residents of that time withdrew into the protective walls of the town of Schmallenberg, where they could live more safely at that time.
In 1862 the wooden cross was replaced by a memorial column made of rubble. Another reason for erecting the column here could come from the fact that the abbot Josias Poolmann from Grafschaft carried out a large border inspection in 1737, which also led him near the upper Schladebach. Here he celebrated a mass offering and had this place entered on a card. It is believed that the monastery architect Michael Spanner created the design and that Master Melchior Klug from Rüthen , the talented stone carver , executed it.
The year "1862" in the base of the column reminds of the renewal of the wooden high cross. The year 1862 was both a commemorative and an anniversary year: 125 years had passed since the resurrection of Latrop and 100 years since the monks returned to the newly built Grafschaft monastery. In 1982 this memorial was renovated and placed under monument protection.
literature
- German ancestral estate in Westphalia, Fritz Mielert, Dortmund, around 1933
- Legends of the Sauerland, Friedrich Albert Groeteken , edited by Magdalena Padberg
- Website stone cross legends from the Sauerland and Siegerland
Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 21 ″ N , 8 ° 22 ′ 13 ″ E