Stone cross nest

The stone cross nest near Reicholzheim was already the subject of art (here a painting by Rudolf Schiestl , 1925)

A stone cross nest , also known as a cross stone nest , is present when several stone crosses or cross stones lie next to one another at one installation site . According to Bernhard Losch (1981), these are mainly to be found in rural areas in which settlement and industry have not been densified in modern times as in the metropolitan areas, so that these cultural monuments have largely been preserved in the open air .

Emergence

There are numerous legends about stone cross nests, some of which only came into being after they were brought together at a common location

The presence of a stone cross nest can have several reasons:

• On the one hand, it can actually be the original location of the crosses. According to Wilhelm Funk (1940), old illustrations, descriptions and district plans show that stone crosses were put together in groups earlier. Friedrich Mößinger (1936) cites an atonement from 1403 as an example, which calls for five crosses for five slain.
• It can be an officially designated place for setting up stone crosses. Mößinger (1936) cites an atonement treaty from Nagold from 1494, which ordered a perpetrator to erect an atonement cross at a certain point where other similar crosses were already standing.
• In some cases it can also be assumed - partly due to the partly different age of the objects in a stone cross nest - that individual stone crosses were implemented in the past or, according to Funk (1940), were only later put together at a suitable location to form such nests.

Since these facts were partly forgotten, new sagas and legends arose in which several people, depending on the number of objects, now play a role.

Known collections

The following stone cross nests or cross stone nests with at least 5 objects are known:

 Map with all coordinates of known stone cross nests (with at least 5 stone crosses): OSM | WikiMap

image	number	Stone cross nest	local community	country	Dating	legend	location
	15th	Stone Cross Nest Cracau	Magdeburg	Germany	14th to 15th century	unknown	52 ° 7 ′ 0 "N, 11 ° 39 ′ 34" E
(more pictures)	14th	Stone cross nest near Reicholzheim	Wertheim	Germany	14th to 16th century	The crosses above Reicholzheim	49 ° 43 '25 "N, 9 ° 32' 26" E
	10	Bührer Kreuzsteinnest	Charges	Germany	medieval	different traditions	51 ° 28 ′ 55 "N, 9 ° 40 ′ 35" E
(more pictures)	8th	Kreuzsteinnest Seven Bustards in Benthe	Ronnenberg	Germany	medieval	The seven bustards , various traditions	52 ° 20 ′ 0 "N, 9 ° 37 ′ 43" E
(more pictures)	8th	Stone cross group in Wolframs-Eschenbach	Wolframs-Eschenbach	Germany	medieval		49 ° 13 '25 "N, 10 ° 43' 23" E
	7th	Stone cross nest Domersleben	Wanzleben-Börde	Germany		unknown	52 ° 5 ′ 30 ″ N, 11 ° 26 ′ 2 ″ E
	7th	Stone cross nest Podhrad	Cheb	Czech Republic		Wedding procession	50 ° 3 '27 "N, 12 ° 23' 39" E
(more pictures)	6th	Stone cross nest Seven carters near Neunstetten (according to legend, the seventh stone cross is missing)	Herrieden	Germany	medieval	The seven carters from Neunstetten	49 ° 15 ′ 32 "N, 10 ° 27 ′ 38" E
(more pictures)	6th	Stone cross nest in Bad Mergentheim	Bad Mergentheim	Germany	15th to 18th century	different traditions	49 ° 29 ′ 49 "N, 9 ° 46 ′ 33" E
(more pictures)	6th	Six stones	Ilberstedt	Germany	from the 13th century	legend	51 ° 47 ′ 58 "N, 11 ° 40 ′ 26" E
(more pictures)	5	Keltschensteine stone cross nest near Bruck	gain	Germany	late medieval	Servants of the Keltsch , various traditions	49 ° 34 ′ 9 ″ N, 10 ° 59 ′ 4 ″ E
(more pictures)	5	Steinkreuznest Five musicians at Falkenstein	Donnersdorf	Germany	early medieval	The musicians from Falkenstein	49 ° 57 ′ 44 "N, 10 ° 25 ′ 22" E
(more pictures)	5	Stone cross nest Neunhof	Nuremberg	Germany		different traditions	49 ° 30 '59 "N, 11 ° 2' 54" E
(more pictures)	5	Stone cross nest near Stübach	Diespeck	Germany	late medieval	unknown	49 ° 36 ′ 36 "N, 10 ° 34 ′ 59" E

Disappeared collections

The following once known stone cross nests or cross stone nests are considered to have disappeared:

• Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate): A stone cross nest with over 30 stone crosses was still in the 18th century on the road from Speyer to Worms. According to an old tradition, a wedding party that came from the Spitzrainhof was attacked and killed by enemy riders. A stone cross would have been erected for each of the dead.
• Heilbronn (Baden-Württemberg): A last cross from an otherwise missing stone cross nest in the area of ​​today's fork Paulinenstrasse / Kreuzenstrasse is still there. The Kreuzenstrasse was named after the former stone cross nest. The stone cross nest in front of the Sülmertor in Heilbronn is drawn in a marking plan from 1734.

literature

• Bernhard Losch: Atonement and Remembrance. Stone crosses in Baden-Württemberg. Theiss, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-8062-0754-2 .
• Friedrich Mößinger: Stone crosses between the Rhine, Main and Neckar. In: Archive for Hessian History and Archeology. New episode 1936.
• Wilhelm Funk: Atonement stone and memorial. In: Old German legal marks. Symbols and witnesses of German history. Berlin / Bremen 1940.

Web links

Commons : Steinkreuznest  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sühnekreuz.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bührener Kreuzsteinnest in: Special print from the Festschrift of the Kyffhäuser-Kameradschaft Bühren, 1967, pp. 7–8.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} locations. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
3. ^ Bernhard Losch: Atonement and Remembrance. Stone crosses in Baden-Württemberg . Theiss, Stuttgart 1981.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Stone witnesses in the landscape - Franconian news. In: fnweb.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Cracau / OT of Magdeburg. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Reicholzheim. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Page: Badisches Sagenbuch II 638.jpg - Wikisource. In: de.wikisource.org. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Page: Badisches Sagenbuch II 639.jpg - Wikisource. In: de.wikisource.org. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b} charges. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Benthe. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} Domersleben. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b} Podhrad / Pograth. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
13. ^ Neunstetten / OT von Herrieden. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
14. ↑ Johann Fluhrer: The seven stone crosses in the Altmühl valley. In: The Bayernland. 13. Vol., 1902, No. 19, p. 226.
15. ↑ ^{a b} Bad Mergentheim. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
16. ↑ ^{a b} Bruck / OT from Erlangen. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Donnersdorf. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
18. ↑ Stone cross legends from Lower Franconia. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
19. ↑ ^{a b} Neunhof / OT of Nuremberg. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
20. ↑ ^{a b} Stübach / OT von Diespeck. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 22, 2020 . 
21. ^ Fritz Klotz: Stadtgeschichtliche Miszellen , Speyer local group of the Historisches Verein der Pfalz 1967, p. 17 f.
22. ↑ Heilbronn. In: suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .