Louisenlund, some east of

Østermarie Østermarie is a village on the Danish island of Bornholm, west of Svaneke. Founded ca. 1880, its old church ('' Østermarie Church''), now a ruin, dates back to the 12th century.

on the Danish island of Bornholm, is a site with one of Denmark's largest collection of

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

s. Some 50 stones standing upright among the trees, many of them over high. Gryet, a similar site in a wood near Bodilsker west of

Nexø Nexø, sometimes spelled Neksø ( sv, Nexö), is a town on the east coast of the Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Pruss ...

once had over 60 megaliths but many have now been removed.

The site

The megaliths, which bear no inscription, stand on low mounds or over graves where the remains of burnt bones are buried. In the early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

and late

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

(1100 BC), it appears to have been common practice to set megaliths over graves of this kind. The stones stand alone or in small groups. As the site has not been archeologically investigated, it is not known why the stones were raised there. Another important megalithic site on Bornholm is Gryet, a small wooded area west of

. Originally it had more than 60 megaliths. Some have now been removed while half those remaining have fallen to the ground. The highest of them, once standing on the mound towards the south of the wood, was removed in the 17th century to be used as a gravestone.

Recent history

Louisenlund was bought by King Frederik VII when he visited Bornholm in 1851. He named it after his mistress, Countess Louise Danner."Louisenlund bei Østermarie auf Bornholm"
''Bornholmerguiden''. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

References

External links

Bornholm Natur's website with photographs
{{Coord, 55, 08, 12, N, 15, 04, 05, E, display=title Bornholm Megalithic monuments in Denmark