<< Our Photo Pages >> Damestenen - Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature in Denmark in Fyn, Langeland and Islands
Submitted by praeceptor on Tuesday, 11 January 2011 Page Views: 6036
Natural PlacesSite Name: DamestenenCountry: Denmark County: Fyn, Langeland and Islands Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
Nearest Village: Hesselager
Latitude: 55.181700N Longitude: 10.760617E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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sba_dk visited on 5th Mar 2015 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5
praeceptor visited on 1st Jun 2008 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 5 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 5
Damestenen (the woman stone), also called the Hesselager Stone is the largest stone in Denmark. It lies close to the South Funen village Hesselager. Damestenen is not originally from Denmark, it was brought here from the southern Sweden by ithe Baltic Glacier under the last ice age, and is called a boulder. The stone is 10 meters tall, has a circumference of 45.8 meters and weighs 1000 tons. Damestenen consists of medium-grained granite, it is red-gray and in several places it has narrow strip of the igneous rock diabase.
In the old days the Damestenen gave rise to myths and legends, including two versions of the many different narratives dealing with the origin of the stone:
People say that a female giant or troll who lived at Hou (the northern end of Langeland), embittered over the spire of Svindinge Church serving the seafarers to too good a mark in anger once threw stones against the said Svindinge spire. But although one can not deny that the good female giant possesed some power and understood the art of taking aim, the stone has only reached 2/3 of the way to the church.
Another version:
When the giant had thrown the stone and it was well on its way to Svindinge Church, there came an angel down from heaven and put a foot on it so that it fell down to the ground where it now lies. And on the top of the stone some people claims there is seen the mark of a foot.
Besides being the legendary woman stone it also attracted attention from other sides.
The founder of Danish geology J.G. Forchhammar tried an explanation of how such a big stone could end up in the middle of a field near Hesselager.
He explained this phenomenon by claiming that the stone was part of the Danish bedrock, which at Hesselager rose to the surface. Shortly after Forchhammer study of the Damestenen King Christian VIII's recommanded that the stone should be partly excavated on the northeastern side.
Although the stone only was partially excavated, there was dug deep enough to prove that the sides of the stone sloped inward, conscious that the stone was not bedrock.
It is said that in the area of Hesselager there have been other large boulders, which in the 1800's were broken or blown to pieces and sold to the roadmakers. The Damestenen has survived as a stone because of the many myths and the mystique associated with the stone.
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