Deer stones in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe

The lower deer stone

The deer stones are two memorial stones that Landgrave Ferdinand had set up on the occasion of his shot at a deer in the state forest of Bad Homburg . They are a cultural monument for reasons of local history.

history

On March 8, 1854, the Landgrave was alone on the hunt and saw a stag standing 150 paces away down the slope . The upper stone marks the location of the almost 71-year-old archer and the lower stone the location of the stag that was shot.

layout

The memorial stones are two smoothly hewn square edges made of red sandstone . The side surfaces are each approx. 57 cm wide on the ground, taper to approx. 53 cm at the upper end and have a visible height of up to approx. 101 or 108 cm (upper and lower monolith ). The last approx. 6 cm at the upper end of the two small obelisks are pointed like a pyramid , so that the rainwater can run off better. The upper deer stone bears the inscription “FL z. HH “( N-grams for: Ferdinand, Landgrave of Hessen-Homburg). An arrow pointing in the direction of the shot and the indication "150 Schr." Is notched on the adjacent side. The lower stone, about 115 meters away, is decorated with a relief of the profile of a deer. The adjacent side bears the carved inscription "Shot on March 8th 1854". The stones are said to have been designed by Jakob Westerfeld .

conservation

The letters carved into the memorial are all easy to read. However, the relief of the deer is only incomplete. So the legs and the antlers are damaged. The memorial stones in the shade of the trees are overgrown with moss. The red color of the sandstone is overlaid by large-area | white efflorescence , which indicates structural damage caused by salts diffusing out of the porous sandstone (possibly coming from the foundation ).

location

The deer stones are located northeast of the Elisabethenschneise in the large fir forest in the Dornholzhausen district of Bad Homburg. Coming from the Homburger Hütte and walking on the Landgrafenweg in the direction of the Bleibeskopf , the lower Hirschstein stands to the right of the path shortly after the Heuchelbach has been crossed. It is somewhat hidden between many trees, so that an almost orthogonal line of sight to the stone is required. The upper stone is on the other side of the trail. The lanes of forest workers visible there lead directly there.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Hirschsteine In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen . Retrieved May 29, 2015.
↑ The deviation from the height of approx. 75 cm given in the literature will be based on the slope of the site.

literature

Hermin Herr: Lexikon vom Hohen Taunus: Mountain, ways, forests, history , Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt, 1993, ISBN 3-7829-0437-0 , p. 73
Maria Bringezu-Paschen: The deer stones in the large fir forest. In: Communications from the Association for History and Regional Studies in Bad Homburg vd Höhe, XXXV. Issue, 1982: For the 1200th anniversary published on behalf of the city of Bad Homburg , Bad Homburg, 1982, pp. 159–161
Louise, Das Bad Homburg Magazin , issue 02/2012, page 9 (PDF; 8.3 MB)