Teufelsstein (Haardt)
| Devil stone | ||
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.jpg) Rock with machining marks |
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| height | 317 m above sea level NHN | |
| location | Palatinate Forest , Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany | |
| Mountains | Haardt | |
| Coordinates | 49 ° 28 '12 " N , 8 ° 8' 54" E | |
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| rock | Red sandstone | |
| particularities | Rock of the same name on the summit | |
The Teufelsstein in the Palatinate Forest near the Palatinate district town of Bad Dürkheim in Rhineland-Palatinate is a mountain at 317 m above sea level. Above sea level. Its name comes from a monolith of the same name on its hilltop, which, as traces of processing show, served as a cult object in earlier times.
geography
location
The mountain north of Grethen , a district of Bad Dürkheim, belongs as a southeast runner to the mountain range of the 494 m high Peterskopf . The massif is located in the Haardt north of the breakthrough of the Isenach from the low mountain range into the hilly landscape on the German Wine Route . From the summit of the Teufelsstein, which is now wooded, there is a panoramic view of the Rhine plain in the east, the Palatinate Forest in the west and its eastern edge, the Haardt, which stretches to the north and south.
Surroundings
A southern foothills, the 300 m high Kästenberg ( Palatine for Kastanienberg ) , which also belongs to the Peterskopf massif , bears the remains of the Heidenmauer , a large Celtic settlement with a 2.5 km long curtain wall that dates back to 500 BC. BC, as well as the Roman quarry Kriemhildenstuhl , which was in use until the 4th century AD.
history
Surname
The Teufelsstein , which gave the mountain its name, is a rock about 2.50 m high and up to 4 m wide. Five steps carved on top of each other lead up like a staircase, where there is a depression that is interpreted as a sacrificial bowl for religious rites of the former, presumably Celtic users and from which a so-called blood channel runs down next to the steps. In addition, the rock bears numerous carved symbols that come from different time periods: In addition to sun wheels , runes and Roman numerals , there are some markings that are reminiscent of stonemasons from the 12th and 13th centuries. According to old descriptions, two roughly sketched human figures and other incisions must have been visible in the past, which have since been weathered or intentionally destroyed. In the vicinity of the Teufelsstein there are some large stones that could represent the remains of a former enclosure of the summit plateau.
Say about the devil stone
The following legend is told in the area:
“Once, when the Limburg monastery was being built on the mountain opposite the Teufelsstein , the monks abused the devil as a construction worker. They had made him believe that they wanted to build an inn, and in this way had induced him to pile up the huge stone blocks. Only when the bells rang for the solemn consecration of the basilica after completion of the complex did the devil notice the deception. Full of anger, he wanted to grab the huge boulder on the opposite mountain and hurl it at the new monastery. But God protected the monks, the stone became soft as butter. Then the devil sat on it, and his buttocks, feet and tail left prints that are still visible to this day ... "
In the book he edited, The picturesque and romantic Rhine Palatinate, Franz Weiß dedicated an epic poem to the saga of the Teufelsstein , which ends as follows:
"
A silent witness still rests in the same place and alone,
where he fell from the Lord of Hell,
on a high mountain - the Devil's Stone."
Gondola
From 1973 to 1981, when operation was prohibited due to a lack of rights, a gondola lift ran from the festival area of the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt , the Brühlwiesen , in a north-westerly direction up to the Teufelsstein. In the following decades the facility was partially destroyed by vandalism and completely dismantled from March 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Devil's Stone. pfalz.de, accessed on March 13, 2017 .
- ↑ Franz Weiß (Ed.): The picturesque and romantic Rhine Palatinate, depicted in original views in steel engravings . 1st edition. Gottschick, Neustadt an der Haardt 1855 (3rd edition 1857; reprint Weidlich, Frankfurt 1981).
- ↑ Peter Spengler (PSP): Bad Durkheim: Valley ruin the gondola will be demolished . In: The Rhine Palatinate . March 24, 2018 ( online [accessed March 9, 2019]).