Sweden Caves Reutlingendorf
| Sweden Caves Reutlingendorf
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| Location: | Swabian Alb , Germany | |
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Geographic location: |
48 ° 11 '50.6 " N , 9 ° 34' 14.9" E | |
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| Type: | Burrows | |
| Discovery: | 1634 | |
| Overall length: | 10 meters | |
The Schwedenhöhlen near Reutlingendorf or also popularly known as "Schwedenlöcher" or "Dobellöcher" is mentioned for the first time in a letter from the war year 1634 from Donatus, a monastery administrator in Reutlingendorf to his abbot in Obermarchtal .
The letter in almost exact wording:
- P. Abbas, Marchtalensis.
"With greetings, I obediently and reverently announce to you that the Schwedt with villmann vnd two hundred pieces of paper is coming from Sulgen and Statt Biberach , so a riding bott has a report from Uttenweiller and wants to keep you safe from harm, because the Schwedt is all there and everyone has robbed, burned or killed. So I announce that the gantz is painting. I, the Clostermayer with ours, are looking for shelter and a roof in the tobacco holes, so everyone may need to ask enough, I would like to announce to you, the most honorable, for your benefit and pious loud cheer.
Ruitlingen 24th junius
In the Aintaussenten six hundred vir and thirtieth years of our master.
St. Johannis Täufers day. "
However, Swedish soldiers entered the area around the buses as early as 1632 . This was the beginning of robbery, fire and murder and an extremely difficult time. The war had no sympathy. This terrible news explained the fear of the monastery administrator in Reutlingendorf and the community of the Swedes and their concern for survival, which drove them to visit the so-called Dobellöcher or even to dig new ones in the soft Pfohsand.
The 15 adjacent caves were dug into the Pfohsand of the upper freshwater molasse as a room-like, spacious pass. Through narrow, very steep entrances, which are almost completely buried today, one got to the spacious dry caves, which are about ten meters long, three meters wide and two and a half meters high. On the sides there are niches that were used for firing.
The completely hidden place in the middle of the confusing forest area probably served as a refuge from time immemorial. What is certain is that it existed before 1634; because when the Swedes approached from Biberach at that time, the “gantz painted von Ruitlingen” and their belongings were hidden in them.
They were visited in times of war until the 19th century. The two cave entrances, which were made accessible by the Reutlingendorf community around 1900, have now fallen into disrepair.
On July 12th, 1898, at the instigation of the local pastor, the local mayor and five councilors dug up one of the former 15 so-called Swedish caves and excavated the fallen soil. The mayor dug a staircase in the Pfohsand, since until now one could only crawl backwards into the cave through an opening similar to a badger's den. On July 15th of the same year a second cave was excavated. In addition, a footpath was prepared and metal signs were set up as signposts. By 1902, four of the fifteen caves had been excavated and made accessible.
In the course of time the Swedish Caves fell into disrepair. Efforts by the Reutlingendorf local authority are to have two Swedish caves dug up again in order to give posterity testimony of past hardship and to bring home history to life.
In the list of cultural monuments of the Baden-Württemberg Monuments Office from 1985 it says: “The Swedish Caves are one of the no longer very common examples of the rural population in the event of war, which were certainly very numerous until the 18th century the villages laid out refuge , into which one and parts of the property could escape from case to case. There is also public interest in documentation of archaeological finds and findings that can be expected in the buried caves for reasons of local history. "
The Sweden Caves are located on the Black Forest-Swabian-Alb-Allgäu-Weg of the Swabian Alb Association. The municipality of Obermarchtal has created a 12.6 km long “Sweden Caves circular route”.
literature
- Obermarchtal community, Reutlingendorf local authority (ed.): 1200 years of Reutlingendorf: 790–1990. About the history and stories of a Swabian village between buses and the Danube . 1st edition. Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1991, ISBN 978-3-88294-162-3 .
