Heidenhöhlen (Zizenhausen)

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The Heidenhöhlen or Heidenlöcher in the Stockach district of Zizenhausen are passages and rooms artificially carved into the rock on Heidenbühl above the Zizenhauser district of Bleiche in the northeast of the Baden-Württemberg district of Konstanz .

Surname

Originally, the caves were almost always called Heidenlöcher and were also entered on the official maps under this name in 1984. There are often pagan names in architectural or ground monuments , the origin of which the population was soon forgotten. On the other hand, Johann Nepomuk Raiser suspected in 1794 that he went back to a band of robbers or gypsies, which in Swabia are also called pagans.

Location and appearance

Heidenhöhlen near Zizenhausen

The Heidenlöcher are located at the foot of a vertical rock face made of molasse sandstone, where it turns into a wooded slope. From the valley as well as from the height of the Heidenbühl, where there is a parking lot for hikers, a footpath leads to the steep face and to the caves.

The southern part of the complex consists of a narrow corridor, which at its end on the mountain side opens into a rectangular room (so-called cellar ), from which one can get outside again through a wide passage. Two almost square side chambers branch off from the corridor. In the rock above this facility there are four irregular, outwardly open rock niches or small caves.

The middle part is a little higher and can be reached by stairs. It consists of more or less deep niches, as well as two rock rooms open to the outside, which are connected by a doorway (so-called kitchen ).

The northernmost room ( Hafnerhöhle ) is also open to the outside.

history

The oldest mention of the complex comes from a poem from 1786, which is carved over the entrance to one of the caves. It is said that Roman coins were found here before 1800 . In a description of the Landgraviate of Nellenburg from 1794 it is said that a farmer named Geng and his family pitched an apartment in one part of these heath holes and dug three interlocking caves in the curly rock with the grave shovel and with doors and windows on the outside. The names for individual cave parts have been handed down from the 19th century and celebrations are said to have taken place there.
Around 1910, a “Wieland” family is said to have quartered there again out of poverty. The man was expelled from the city of Stockach after demanding entrance fees from visitors.

Most of the cavities and some of the rock niches are artificially created or at least reworked by human hands. Heidenlöcher probably existed before the expansion by the farmer Geng, but the origin and function are not known. In 1983 the Heidenhöhlen was measured and included in the cave cadastre of southwest Germany.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Topographic Maps 1: 25000, sheet 8120 Stockach, 1984 edition
  2. ↑ cit. based on Fredy Meyer: At Steps and Steps (Hegau Library 124) Konstanz 2004, p. 128.
  3. ↑ cit. based on Fredy Meyer: At Steps and Steps (Hegau Library 124) Konstanz 2004, p. 128.
  4. ↑ Four questions about the regional phenomenon Heidenhöhlen Südkurier online, 10 August 2010

Web links

literature

  • Hans Wagner: The Heidenhöhlen (Heidenlöcher) near Zizenhausen . In: Hegau . tape 14 , 1962, pp. 257-261 .
  • Thomas Striebel: The Heidenhöhlen near Zizenhausen - an example of artificial caves of older origins . In: Bulletin of the Blaustein cave research group . tape 9 , 1986, pp. 15-29 .
  • 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, v. a. 96-98 .
  • Lambert Karner : Artificial caves from ancient times. Vienna 1903, reprint 2018, ISBN 978-3-96401-000-1 , pp. 214–215.

Coordinates: 47 ° 52 ′ 6.4 "  N , 9 ° 0 ′ 33.3"  E