Heidenhöhlen (Goldbach)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View of the Heidenhöhlen before the road was built
(colored steel engraving , mid-19th century)

The Heidenhöhlen , formerly also called Heidenlöcher , are artificially hewn passages and chambers in a rock face in the Überlingen district of Goldbach on Lake Constance .

Location and appearance

To the west of the village of Goldbach, the Heidenhöhlen is carved into the molasses sandstone of the almost vertically sloping Heidenlöcher rock, which formerly protruded into the lake. As a result, the rock blocked the bank, so that only a footpath led from Goldbach towards Sipplingen when the water level was low .

The complex consisted of individual rooms, carefully carved out of the rock, with window openings in the rock wall that opened up a view of the lake. The rooms were connected to one another by doorways and connecting corridors, and some were equipped with pseudo vaults carved out of the rock .

To the north-west of the hamlet of Brünnensbach, which also belongs to Überlingen, there was another point where the Molassefels reached the lake shore. There was the rock chapel of St. Catherine, which consisted of cavities in the rock and was formerly the home of a hermit . The riverside path led directly through the chapel grotto, which was decorated with crucifixes and images of saints.

history

The Heidenhöhlen had medieval architectural features . Otherwise nothing is known about its origin. In the 18th century they were temporarily inhabited by poor and homeless people and were partially destroyed by the city of Überlingen in order to drive them away. With the advent of Lake Constance tourism in the 19th century, the now uninhabited and primeval looking "rock apartments" became a tourist attraction. Nevertheless, they were partially destroyed in 1846 when a swath was blasted through the rocks for the Bodensee-Uferstraße (later Bundesstraße 31 ). The railroad construction in the 1890s, on the other hand, although this is often claimed, did not affect the Heidenhöhlen. The access had to be closed from 1954 due to increasing gaps in the sandstone. Due to a storm in 1960, the eastern part of the caves collapsed. Thereupon other parts were blown up because of the danger of collapse to secure the nearby federal road.

The rock by the Katharinenkapelle and the chapel itself were also destroyed in 1847 for road construction. Afterwards, an unadorned “replacement room” was created in the remaining rock, which is supposed to remind of the old chapel. Today the room is barred and inaccessible; In addition, it is dangerous to get to the point because there is no stopping point on the busy main road. Nevertheless, there is still an entry “Katharinenkapelle” on the official topographic map 1: 25,000. The rest of the Katharinenfelsen is now part of a small nature reserve of the same name.

Current condition

Due to the various types of destruction, hardly anything is left of the cultural monument today. From below, only one room can be seen, which is no longer accessible due to the dangerous location in the soft rock directly above the road and the dense thorn bushes.

literature

  • Franz Hofmann: The Heidenhöhlen near Goldbach - About one of the most spectacular travel destinations on Lake Constance and its irretrievable destruction . In: Hegau . tape 65 , 2008, p. 101-130 .
  • Franz Hofmann: The Secret of the Heidenhöhlen . City of Überlingen, Überlingen 2012.
  • Ralf Keller: Heidenhöhlen - artificial caves on the western part of Lake Constance . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings . tape 29 , 2011, p. 77–132, especially pp. 81–93 ( digitized version ).
  • Ralf Keller: The Heidenhöhlen near Goldbach - a cave castle on Lake Constance? In: Castles and Palaces . tape 55 , 2014, p. 222-232, especially pp. 222-228 .
  • Uwe Frank, Michael Loose, Ralf Schrage: Castles, palaces, aristocratic residences and fortifications on northern Lake Constance . Ed .: Michael Losse (=  series of publications of the Nellenburger Kreis . Volume 1.1 ). Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86568-191-1 , p. 60-62 .
  • Lambert Karner : Artificial caves from ancient times. Vienna 1903, reprint 2018, ISBN 978-3-96401-000-1 , p. 213.

Web links

Commons : Heidenhöhlen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ R. Keller: Heidenhöhlen - artificial caves on western Lake Constance . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings . tape 29 , 2011, p. 82 ( digitized version ).

Coordinates: 47 ° 46 '30.8 "  N , 9 ° 7' 57.7"  E