Fraubillenkreuz_ferschweiler_plateau_eifel_rueckseite

The Fraubillen cross (german: Fraubillenkreuz) is a

menhir A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found ...

, which has been resculpted into a cross. It stands by a wayside on the

Ferschweiler Plateau The Ferschweiler Plateau, which is home to the villages of Ferschweiler and Ernzen among others, is an extensive highland area made from sandstone and is located in the collective municipality of Verbandsgemeinde Irrel, Irrel in the county of Bitb ...

in the Eifel mountains in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, between Ferschweiler, Schankweiler, Nusbaum-Rohrbach and

Bollendorf Bollendorf is a German municipality in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, located on the left bank of the Sauer river, opposite the Luxembourgish town of Bollendorf-Pont Bollendorf-Pont (, ) is a village in the commune of Berdorf, in easte ...

. According to tradition, the celebrated

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

in the Eifel region,

Willibrord Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. Early life His fath ...

refashioned the roughly 5,000-year-old menhir by hand into the shape of a cross as a Christian monument. Two niches for figures have been chiselled into the rock, each surrounded by holes. Today, the cross is about 3.5 metres high. The origin of its name is unclear. It could be derived from ''Unserer lieben Frau Bild-Kreuz'', "Sculpted Cross of Our Dear Lady". Another possibility is that the name is derived from

Sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local tradi ...

, which was given to prophetic women. Evidence of the latter is that the menhir was mentioned in 1617 as the ''Sybillen Creutz'' ("Sybil Cross").

Literature

* Johannes Groht: ''Menhire in Deutschland.'' Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2013, , pp. 339–340. * Leonard Palzkill: ''Sauertal ohne Grenzen. Wanderungen durch die deutsch-luxemburgische Felsenlandschaft.'' Verbandsgemeinde Irrel, Irrel, 2002, , p. 41: ''"Fraubillenkreuz"''. * Walter Pipke, Ida Leinberger: ''Die Eifel. Geschichte und Kultur des alten Vulkanlandes zwischen Aachen und Trier''. 5th updated edition. DuMont, Cologne, 2006, (''DuMont Kunstreiseführer''). * Pierre Kauthen: ''Vom 'Fraubillenkreuz' zum Grab des hl. Willibrord.'' In: ''Hémecht'' 2011 (63rd year), Issue 1, pp.5-20.

External links

Christianisierter Menhir “Fraubillenkreuz”
{{in lang, de Wayside crosses Stone crosses in Continental Europe Eifel Archaeological sites in Germany Monuments and memorials in Germany Megalithic monuments in Germany Bitburg-Prüm Stone sculptures in Germany Outdoor sculptures in Germany