Mercy Lake
| Mercy Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
|
||
| In the upper area of the picture, the elongated Gnadensee stretches to the west and ends there in the Markelfinger Winkel | ||
| Geographical location | Baden-Württemberg | |
| Tributaries | Nägelriedgraben | |
| Drain | Rheinsee | |
| Places on the shore | Allensbach | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 47 ° 42 ' N , 9 ° 3' E | |
|
||
| surface | 13 km² | |
| length | 11.1 km | |
| width | 1.9 km | |
| Maximum depth | 19 m | |
|
||
| The Untersee with its underwaters. | ||
The Gnadensee is part of the western part of Lake Constance called Untersee . It lies between Allensbach in the north and the island of Reichenau in the south; in the west it extends to the Mettnau peninsula ( Radolfzell ) and at the eastern end it borders on the Wollmatinger Ried nature reserve and the Reichenaudamm with its poplar avenue that can be seen from afar. The outermost small part in the northwest is called Markelfinger Winkel . Together with this it has an area of 13 square kilometers. The lake part reaches a maximum depth of 19 meters.
Name interpretations
The name of the Gnadensee probably comes from the time when the jurisdiction was located on the island of Reichenau. If a defendant was sentenced to death, the execution of the sentence could not be carried out on the island, but only on the mainland, since the whole island was sacred ground. Therefore, the convict was brought to the mainland in the direction of today's Allensbach by boat so that the sentence could be carried out there. If the abbot wanted to pardon the condemned, he let a bell ring before the condemned reached the other bank. This signaled to the executioner on the mainland that the condemned had received mercy.
This interpretation is to be seen as a legend. The name Gnadensee can be explained more coherently with the gracious mother Maria, the lady of grace, namely as an ellipse of the term "Gnaden [woman] see", since the monastery in Mittelzell was a Marian monastery.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lake Constance: partial lakes and mouth of the Rhine (map)
- ↑ ikgb International Water Protection Commission for Lake Constance: Limnological State of Lake Constance, Report No. 40 , p. 43
- ↑ Helmut Fidler: Small cultural history of rowing on the Untersee , in: Hegau. Journal for history, folklore and natural history of the area between the Rhine, Danube and Lake Constance , annual volume 68 (2011), pp. 5–26, here p. 12.