Horse drink (Lilienstein)

The horse trough or salt lick is a tub-shaped depression in a pending sandstone block not far from Franzosenborn in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains on Lilienstein , the history of which is linked to the French occupation of the area at the beginning of the 19th century and which was repaired in 1983 after years of neglect.

Geographical location

The horse trough or salt lick is about 15 meters away from the Franzosenborn at the foot of the northeast side of the Lilienstein directly on the sea of rocks located there near the Kirchsteige, which connects Waltersdorf and the city of Königstein (Saxon Switzerland) . The water of the Franzosenborn flows out of the groundwater-conducting sandstone of the Oberturon and collects in a depression in the mountain slope west of the homestead known as “ Auf der Sellnitz ”.

The circular path around the Lilienstein, used as a hiking trail, passes near the horse trough.

history

In the vicinity of the horse trough there was a village on the Sellnitz that was still called Seldensath or Seltensaat in 1474 and 1501 . In particularly hot summers, the spring water is said to have been fetched from here and the neighboring Franzosenborn by the inhabitants. At the beginning of the early modern period, the village of Seltensath / Seltensaat became a desert.

During the wars of liberation against the French, the water from the Franzosenborn is said to have been used not only as a water supply for the soldiers, but also as a trough for the soldiers' horses, who were camped here for several weeks until the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813.

Like the neighboring Franzosenborn, the horse trough had suffered from years of neglect and was filled with leaves that had crumbled into humus. Members of the group for cave and karst research Dresden in the Kulturbund of the GDR met in April 1983 to repair the Franzosenborn and in this context also brought the horse drinking water back in order.

The horse drink is also interpreted as a salt lick. There is no exact clarity about an actual use in earlier times.

literature

Dieter Funke: Repair of the Franzosenborn at Lilienstein (Saxon Switzerland). In: Sächsische Heimatblätter 30 (1984), 3rd and 4th cover page .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Other sources in Saxon Switzerland, such as the water point on Frienstein, were repaired by the members of this Kulturbund working group.

50.93111 14.09105Coordinates: 50 ° 55 '52 " N , 14 ° 5' 27.8" E

[1] Other sources in Saxon Switzerland, such as the water point on Frienstein, were repaired by the members of this Kulturbund working group.