Basalt cross
The basalt crosses of the Eifel are proof of the piety of the former residents. They bear testimony of faith and superstition, and the wealth and prestige of the builders. References to accidents as well as occupational information and requests for clemency are preserved in this extremely weather-resistant material. The distribution has its center in Basalt - quarries of Mayen and Mendig . The area covers a radius of approx. 30 km between the Rhine , Ahr and Moselle rivers . The exact number of markers is not known. The local researcher Kurt Müller-Veltin assumes a population of approx. 4500 wayside crosses and approx. 6000 grave crosses. The Rhenish Association for the Preservation of Monuments is committed to preserving these land monuments .
Early days
It is not known exactly when the first basalt crosses were erected. The various small, roughly crafted crosses still preserved without inscriptions and pictorial representations could be the oldest. However, due to the rough processing and the lack of images, their age cannot be determined by stylistic comparisons. Since the stone used hardly weathers, there are no recognizable signs of age. All that is known is that basalt was used for small religious monuments as early as Roman times; the so-called Merovingian Cross from Moselkern , for example , dates back to the 7th century and was also made from basalt.
, Also called because of their shape Wegmale Dipper are called, are to 16, isolated yet emerged in the 17th century. It is a more or less high shaft on which a niche housing sits; the shaft is often in a millstone , which gives it a secure footing. The niche stick emerged from the ladle and already contains the cross as an attribute, it was often attached to crown the niche. The niche of the ladle originally served as an exposure niche to place the pyxis , a container with a consecrated host in Eucharistic processions , or the monstrance . Later crosses were created with a niche that is so flat that nothing can be placed in it - the niche probably eventually developed into a pure symbol for the Holy of Holies , also in connection with the repeated restriction of the excessive procession by the bishops. In the vernacular, however, ladles are also referred to as cross, even if they do not have a cross at all.
The original function of the niche of the ladle is mostly no longer known to the population today; it is often assumed that the niche originally served to put up a figure of a saint or candles. Therefore, ladles are now sometimes repurposed for these purposes.
Undated waymark
Niche stick with cross 1601
Undated basalt cross
Anno 1751
Dating
The earliest dated and detailed inscriptions (in the shape of a ladle) come from the founder Clais Beligen, the oldest of them bears the date 1461. Many pieces, however, are undated; due to their rough processing, the age can hardly be estimated. Since the use of basalt for religious consecration stones was already common in Roman times, they may well be significantly older than the first dated pieces. Most of the pieces preserved today date from the 17th and 18th centuries, the heyday of the basalt crosses. As a result of the Enlightenment and the historical upheavals after the French Revolution, significantly fewer crosses were placed from the end of the 18th century; the last ones were made in the first half of the 19th century. From that time to the present, only a few stone crosses are set up in the field and hallway.
A modern example is the memorial cross for the explosion in Prüm in 1949, which the sculptor Johann Baptist Lenz created in 1979, but due to its height and design it is only slightly comparable to the basalt crosses of earlier centuries.
Blessing stones
Many crosses were part of the field processions that were customary in the past, during which the Holy of Holies was carried and the blessing was given at certain points. In the tradition of the ladle (see above) , the exposure niches to accommodate the container with the host are more or less pronounced. There are also crosses without a niche, but with a console on which the monstrance was placed. They were probably created after large monstrances that no longer fit in the niches of the ladles became common in smaller rural parishes in the 18th century. Sometimes ladles were supplemented by a basalt “table” in front of which the monstrance could be placed.
16__
1699
1881
Cemetery crosses and grave crosses
Large crosses (two meters or more high) have been handed down as a hallmark of the cemetery since the late Middle Ages. They are also made of basalt; but sometimes only the base was made of basalt and the cross itself was made of wood. They are to be distinguished from grave crosses that marked the respective grave. These smaller crosses were made in large numbers and even exported (together with the millstones produced in the basalt area around Mayen / Mendig). Particularly impressive grave crosses from the 18th century have been preserved in Mayschoss and Dümpelfeld , among others . The picture side shows the body of Christ and symbols, the writing side provides information about the deceased. Some grave crosses were later moved to the field and thus used as a wayside cross.
Man of Sorrows
A writing page
Seven swords
Drowned
Simple grave cross
Protection, defense and atonement
In the early and high Middle Ages , the crosses were ascribed protection from lightning, hail and other natural damage. Crosses were also erected to protect against epidemics that threatened humans and animals. The name "Black Cross", which many basalt crosses bear, can be derived not only from the black stone material, but also from the hoped-for protection against the "Black Death", the plague .
Atonement crosses were erected in some places to make amusement after manslaughter and other serious crimes, later generally for the salvation of a murdered person. As a result, the Prussian government wanted to take action against the setting up of crosses in the 19th century so that travelers should not get the impression that they are in an area made unsafe by muggers.
Special accidents were also often a reason for the foundation of a cross, similar to the way that wooden crosses on many streets today remind of victims of traffic accidents. If the scene of the accident was in a poorly accessible area, two crosses were sometimes placed - one at the actual scene of the accident and another on the closest path where it could be seen by passers-by. Often the inscriptions on such crosses ask to pray for the salvation of the victim's soul.
Inscriptions and house brands
The inscriptions are usually in German with a dialect influence. Latin inscriptions are rarely found, they are limited to pieces associated with educated people from the upper classes. Years were initially shown in Roman numerals, later in Arabic numerals. A frequently used abbreviation is DSGG (whose [their] Seel Gott Gnad). The photo shows an example of the optimal saving in font, e.g. B. MARIA
Other abbreviations replace words or names with characters, for example the Siebenbach family name is written as 7bach . Such abbreviations saved space and probably also costs, since the work of the stone cutter was reduced.
Chronograms are seldom found , ie inscriptions in which enlarged letters can be read as Roman numerals within the inscription , sometimes these "hidden" dates have a special meaning. For example, they give the year of a specific event that was the reason for the foundation of the cross.
House brands are identifiers and property marks of the clans or the court affiliation. This representation makes it possible to assign the marks to the deceased or to the donor. Mostly they are abstract characters made up of simple lines, but sometimes also representations of tools or objects typical of the profession (e.g. bread for a baker, scissors for a tailor, etc.). Here the border to the coat of arms is fluid.
workshops
Originally, the crosses were not made in special workshops, but were by-products of other stonemasons, e.g. B. in the production of millstones. The time of the cross workshops begins around 1630 and crosses can often be assigned to a specific workshop through the handwriting of the masters, especially in the 18th century some workshops with a very extensive production can be identified, some of which were produced for about a generation. However, none of these masters is known by name for sure, especially since the crosses have no signature or the like. wear. Kurt Müller-Veltin therefore introduced a designation of the workshops with letters (“Workshop A” etc.) as an emergency name in his standard work (see section Literature) .
Customs and legends
Many basalt crosses were originally part of certain religious customs, which have mostly disappeared today. In addition to the field processions already mentioned, there was the custom of “seven crosses praying”: when someone was dying, the relatives went to seven crosses in the vicinity of the community and prayed there to ease the death of the dying person. This custom still existed in isolated cases after the Second World War, but has since disappeared, like most of these customs. Some crosses also had a legal function, they marked municipality or court boundaries and were therefore often integrated into corresponding customs.
Many of the crosses are linked to legends , the age of which cannot be precisely determined. Even if they are often considered "ancient", many can only be traced back to the romantic era. Some of these legends evidently originated because the representations on the cross could no longer be interpreted: A cross depicting agricultural implements is said to have been placed on the spot where one peasant woman killed the other. In fact, it is an ordinary grave cross that was later moved to the field. The agricultural implements originally only referred to the deceased's occupation, in the legend they became the alleged murder weapons.
Some crosses also have names, e.g. B. often “black cross”, which could indicate the material or the hoped-for protection from the cross against the “ black death ”. The function as a legal symbol could also be reflected in a name that is no longer easily understandable today, such as " Iron Hand ".
Stone material and monument preservation
From a technical point of view, the lava stones from the quarries between Mayen and Mendig are not basalt , but a so-called tephrite lava . However, this scientific distinction has not caught on in common parlance. As before, all black, volcanic rocks are referred to as "basalt" here. The rock is relatively easy to work with due to its coarse pores, but is nevertheless so weatherproof that it survives centuries without any changes. Some of the crosses were originally painted. Due to the weathering, however, there are only a few visible remains of paint. One can assume, however, that at least the inscriptions were highlighted in color. In addition to crosses made of basalt, there may also have been wooden crosses in their area of distribution, which fell apart and were not preserved.
Thanks to their extremely resistant material, basalt crosses have survived the centuries without any noticeable weathering. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that they were in increasing danger. Due to changes in the landscape such as road construction, the creation of industrial and new building areas, the extraction of natural resources (e.g. pumice ), many crosses disappeared or at least had to be moved to new locations. As antiques became a popular collecting area in the 1970s and 1980s , theft increased, and some notable crosses fell victim to. Due to the lower prices for such objects and thanks to the increased vigilance of the population, such thefts are now less worthwhile, and there are now photos of all crosses that make it easier to solve theft. Changes in the landscape and the direct threat from road traffic are still problematic. Even well-intentioned but not professional “restorations” have caused serious damage to some pieces.
See also
literature
- Karl-Friedrich Amendt: Rhenish wayside crosses (wayside shrines). Mysterious witnesses to medieval thought. Edition Lempertz, Königswinter 2010, ISBN 978-3-941557-52-9 .
- Kurt Müller-Veltin: Middle Rhine stone crosses made of basalt lava. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-88094-570-5 .
- Elke Lehmann-Brauns: Heaven, Hell, Plague and Wolves. Basalt lava crosses of the Eifel. 3. Edition. Bachem, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7616-1193-5 .
- Manfred Mehlhop: Old stone crosses in the area of the Brohltal community. With an introduction by Kurt Müller-Veltin. Verbandsgemeinde, Brohltal 1993.
Web links
- Forum Suehnekreuz
- Stolen Crosses Database
- Basalt crosses of the Eifel
- Blessing stones at the turn of the century
Individual evidence
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↑ For example in the diocese of Münster : Manfred Becker-Huberti : The Tridentine Reform in the diocese of Münster under Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen 1650 to 1678. Münster 1978, p. 304f.
Decrees of the Bishop of Münster of March 3, 1829, October 9, 1829, December 22, 1829 and October 29, 1830; see: Werner Freitag: Popular and elite piety in the early modern period. Marian pilgrimages in the Principality of Münster. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1991, ISBN 3-506-79572-4 , p. 354. - ↑ Note: The seven swords symbolize the seven sorrows of Mary .
- ↑ Christine Aka: Crosses, candles, cuddly toys. Mourning rituals at accident sites. In: Everyday life in the Rhineland 2010. LVR Institute for Regional Studies and Regional History , Bonn 2010, pp. 44–58 ( full text as PDF; 7.5 MB )
- ↑ Ernst Flöck: Way and grave crosses . In: Mülheim-Kärlich , Ed. Winfried Henrichs, Mülheim-Kärlich Municipality 1981, p. 257.
- ↑ Stone-gate.de. German basalt lava Retrieved June 20, 2017.