Waldbrudershütte

The Waldbrudershütte is a striking rock overhang on the edge of the Ulfenbachtal near Hirschhorn in southern Hesse . Presumably, the remote place once served as the home of a hermit . There is a historical rock painting in the rock face.

The approximately 77 cm high rock painting shows a relief image of a human figure who lifts her hands above her head and a bird sits on her right shoulder. The figure is dressed in a long robe, under the hem of which two pointed shoes are indicated. The rock also shows a very old opening that was once part of a door construction. It is therefore assumed that the rock face, which is 60 meters above the valley floor, was once the home of a hermit.

In the figure in the rock, researchers recognize the prophet Elijah , who was fed by ravens in the Old Testament and venerated by the Carmelite order based in Hirschhorn . The figure is dated from its design to the 13th or 14th century. A three-pass walled in the nearby Drachenbrünnle of unknown origin from the Gothic period supports the thesis that someone could have lived in the Waldbrudershütte as early as the Middle Ages and could have obtained their drinking water from the Drachenbrünnle . The reference to a product coming from the monastery hermit creates the vernacular traditional designation hermit hut , as with brother a well- monk ( "Friar") is meant.

The figure in the rock is only partially visible today, as the rock was damaged twice by vandalism in the 1960s. Casts of the figure can be seen in the Langbein Museum in Hirschhorn and in the Folklore Museum in Heppenheim.

An image of the figure can only be found in the Langbein Museum in Hirschhorn.

literature

• Holger Göldner: The rock painting at the Waldbrudershütte in Archaeological Monuments in Hesse , 1983
• Erika Luise Reichmann-Alles: The rock painting at the Waldbrudershütte near Hirschhorn in Unser Land , 1999

Coordinates: 49 ° 27 '28.9 "  N , 8 ° 52' 10"  O 49 ° 27'29 N, 8 ° 52'10 O