Stone cross

These small monuments are found along old routes and crossroads, by trees and forest edges, on hilltops or on old municipal and territorial boundaries.

Unfortunately, many of these stone witnesses to a bygone era have disappeared due to carelessness, ignorance or deliberate destruction.

[1] In addition, it was sometimes believed that magical power was attached to the so-called "flour" obtained by scraping stone crosses.

In spite of various opinions and intensive archival research, a touch of mystery and enigma still surrounds these rough, massive crosses.

The historical and religious background is that, in Roman Catholic times, passers by were to be encouraged to say prayers of intercession for those who had died without the opportunity for last rites.

More recent stone crosses in Roman Catholic areas may well have continued the medieval custom of intercessory prayers for the dead (Fürbittgedanken).

In addition to suffering a ten-year imperial ban, Berlin had to build an atonement cross, which is still to be found by the entrance to the church.

They could also be placed by relatives following a fatal accident or - as is recorded in writing in Zittau in 1392 - in gratitude for the charitable foundation of a Kuttenberg citizen for repairing a mountainous border road to the town of Gabel.

In the vernacular, stone crosses have numerous regional names that go back to tragic historical events.

It is likely that the crosses, which are always found on their own and deep in the countryside, are on sites that were deemed suitable places for mass graves, depending on regional custom and the acceptance of ancient stone crosses as sufficiently holy sites, or as a place for "heathens" that could not be buried in consecrated ground in a graveyard.