Iron Hand (Koblenz City Forest)
The Iron Hand is the name of a listed basalt cross in the Koblenz city forest , Rhineland-Palatinate .
description
The 2.70 m high cross stands on an old Roman road, Ausoniusstraße , which is still recognizable today as a forest road. It has a niche between the crossbars, the crossbars themselves bear the year 1677, on the shaft there are several initials and house brands as well as the inscription ERECTUM 1728, further down there is the year [17] 98, which probably indicates a further restoration . At the upper end of the cross, a (new) hand made of sheet iron is attached to the left and right, pointing in the direction of the path leading by.
history
The year 1677 on the crossbar of the cross could refer to the first construction; the explicit reference Erectum 1728 to a renewal. The house brands and initials probably belong to the Koblenz forest rangers who erected and / or renewed the cross. It is possible that the cross was originally the target of a procession , as the niche in the upper part of comparable crosses is interpreted as a possibility to place the host carried with you (the figure in it today is a modern ingredient). This is also obvious because the border of the old Koblenz city forest runs nearby and such processions were often carried out along the boundaries of the district.
To explain the name and the iron hands attached to the cross today, a legend is cited, according to which a knight Kuno, administrator of Stolzenfels Castle , was drunk and met his wife at this point at night, who wanted to scare him in order to prevent him from drinking in the future. But he did not recognize her and cut off her hand in the fight. Out of repentance, he then had the cross erected with both iron hands, one pointing to Kobern , where he came from, the other to Stolzenfels, where he wanted to stay with his wife in the future. There is no historical evidence for this story, however, like many other "ancient" sagas, it is probably a romantic invention .
The modern interpretation, according to which the iron hands served as a guide, is probably not applicable either, since the designation Iron Hand only suggests one. Presumably the name refers to the symbol of the hand as a symbol for a legal border and as a reference to cutting off the hand as a punishment for forest offenses. According to this interpretation, the cross refers to the nearby border of the city forest and the associated legal district. The two hands as signposts were probably only attached when this old meaning was forgotten.
Nearby on the same path there is another cross, about 48 cm high, the so-called baker's cross ; In addition to an illegible inscription, it shows a bread (or a wake ) and a pretzel and probably dates from around 1600. It was probably a baker's grave cross that was later moved to the forest as a crossroads.
literature
A. Günther: The wayside cross in the Koblenz city forest . In: Koblenzer Heimatblatt . tape 7 , no. 12 . Koblenz March 23, 1930 ( dilibri.de ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Koblenz Monument List , page 24 (.pdf)
- ↑ http://www.koblenz-stolzenfels.de/Ein_nachtlicher_Zweikampf_an_der.htm
- ↑ Kurt Müller-Veltin: Middle Rhine stone crosses from basalt lava, Neuss 1980, p. 54 (with notes and cross-references). ISBN 3-880-94192-0
- ^ Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and their suburbs (= The art monuments of Rhineland-Palatinate . Volume 1 ). Munich 1954, p. 367 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 17 ′ 49 ″ N , 7 ° 33 ′ 59 ″ E