|
The Giersteine
|
|
On the afternoon of Halloween day, October 31st, 2002, I visited an interesting place in the northern part of the famous Black Forest, in neighbouring Baden-Württemberg state and about 90 minutes drive from Speyer. I read about this place in the book Naturdenkmale (or Natural Monuments) and was so enthralled by the beautiful setting in which the "Giersteine" are located that, despite being quite preoccupied with the monumental task of writing my doctoral thesis, I decided to invest the time, money and effort to drive down to there in my Opel Corsa and sit around contemplatively for a while. Located close to the
hamlet of Bermersbach and commanding a magnificent view of the
Murgtal (Murg Valley), there stands a group of granite stone blocks,
two of which are approximately round and quite To learn more about the many Giersteine theories click here (the text is in German). Good photos taken at the stones can be found here. The Murgtal Museum is about 500 meters from the Giersteine, and has several interesting exhibits specific to the area. Visitors may want to check it out after the've finished with the Giersteine which, fortunately, are protected as monuments since 1936. Incidentally, I spent over an hour sitting on the largest stone, which is accessible by a flight of steps hewn into the granite but - would you believe it - not a sigle soul came by in this time whom I could have handed over my camera and asked to photograph me perched on top of it. Grrrrrrrrrr!!! Could it be that the locals are avoiding the stones? |
large (the bigger one
measures 13 meters in circum-ference), and exhibit strange grooves
and indenta-tions. Named the Giersteine, these stones exude an aura
of mystery which has fascinated people for centuries and given rise
to all kinds of theories about their origination. One account states
that Celtic Druid priests used the stones for animal
sacrifical ceremo-nies to appease their pagan Gods before the advent of
Christianity, another maintains that the Devil him-self took up
position on the
stones to block the ad-vance of Christian
missionaries up the valley but was compelled to retreat. In his rage, his claws
scraped the larger stones' surfaces, creating the the grooves and
indentations which are now visible on them (geologists explain these
grooves and inden-tations as the result of weather effects). A grand
oak tree supposedly stood close to the stones and here legal matters
were deliberated.
