Hilgensteen

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Hilgensteen Hilgenstein
The Hilgensteen

The Hilgensteen
Hilgensteen (Lower Saxony)
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 53 ° 32 '21.8 "  N , 7 ° 41' 37.6"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '21.8 "  N , 7 ° 41' 37.6"  E
place Wittmund , Wittmund district , Lower Saxony , Germany

The Hilgensteen or Hilgenstein ( Low German for "Heiligenstein") is an erratic block and possible prehistoric menhir in Ardorf , a district of Wittmund in the Wittmund district , Lower Saxony .

location

The Hilgensteen was originally located on the site of today's Wittmundhafen air base . The whole area was originally named after him. It was probably at a crossroads of the old military and trade route from Oldenburg to East Frisia . When the airfield was rebuilt in 1939, the stone was initially thought to be lost. In 1951 it was rediscovered and moved to its current location in Ardorf. There it is on the northern edge of the village, 200 m south of the town exit on the eastern side of Heglitzer Straße in a fence.

description

The stone is made of red granite. It is plate-shaped and has a blunt tip. It has a length of 1.3 m, a width of 0.8 m and a thickness of 0.44 m. Johannes Groht classifies it as a possible menhir, but there is no written evidence that it was still upright in historical times.

The stone in regional legends

There is a legend about Hilgenstein : The monk Mimko once lived in Meerhusen near Ardorf . Together with his fellow believer Hayko from the Ihlow Monastery , he traveled to Jerusalem to pray at the holy places. There they both got sick and Hayko died. Mimko prayed to God and swore that if he got well, he would live as a hermit in his homeland and dedicate his life to the Virgin Mary . He got well and kept his promise. Most of the remaining 30 years of his life he spent praying in a hut between Middels and Ardorf. He healed the sick with a stone that he had brought from the holy land . After his death he was buried in the cemetery in Meerhusen. All that remained of his hut was a large stone that had been used as a doorstep. The stone was later named Hilgensteen ("Heiligenstein") in memory of the miraculous Mimko .

literature

  • Rudolf Bielefeld: De Hilgensteen. Een Staaltje ut de olle Haasketieden. Wittmund 1933.
  • Karl-Heinz de Wall: Old stones tell: The miracle healer and the devilish fox hunt on Good Friday (= home by the sea. ) Volume 20, Wilhelmshavener Zeitung, October 6, 2001.
  • Johannes Groht : Menhirs in Germany. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-18-5 , pp. 212, 225.
  • Otto Houtrouw: East Frisian monthly sheet. Volume 2, Emden 1839, p. 124.
  • Wilhelm Baron von Krüdener: Where was the legendary Hilgensteen? In: Frisian homeland. , Supplement 20, 1953.
  • Karl Heinz Marschalleck: Stone markings from prehistoric times in Harlingerland. In: Harlinger Heimatkalender. 1970, pp. 22-23.
  • o. A.: "Hilgensteen and Jödenkamp". Another prehistoric discovery when the stone was erected. In: Frisian homeland. Volume 129, 1954.

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