The cross tells the dramatic story of two young people who wanted to get married. In January 1871, they decided to cross La Fagne to get the necessary papers for marriage in the neighboring village. Two months later, when the snow melted, the two bodies were found...

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Bernd 🌲🦌🍄🥾

January 24, 2023

Hiking

The Betrothed's Cross commemorates Marie Josephe Solheid and François Reiff, who perished in a severe blizzard in the Venn near Baraque Michel on January 21, 1871. The couple was on their way to Xhoffraix to obtain marriage papers, but the approximately 20-kilometer journey across the deep snow-covered moor proved fatal.

Colette Pichot from Hoof near Welkenraedt owns a small gold cross that Marie carried with her on the night of her death. She inherited it from her grandmother, who was Marie Solheid's niece.

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Bernd 🌲🦌🍄🥾

June 29, 2022

Hiking

Maria Theresia Weinert (1913-2013) published the following wonderful poem about the Betrothed's Cross in the 1975 "Heimatkalender" (local history calendar):

"A black wooden wayside cross, not far from the path in the moor, where he rested—when he lost his way—never rose again. And though he led his dearest bride, and she cried out in distress, the snowstorm raged through misty land, and though they grasped each other's hand, death still grasped them. The snowdrift covered everything, hope and life, the black wayside cross in the moor tells who got lost here in the fen around 1870."

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Informations

Elevation 670 m

Weather

Tuesday 10 March

8°C

2°C

98 %

Additional weather tips

Max wind speed: 23.0 km/h

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Location: Jalhay, Verviers, Liège, Wallonie, Wallonia, Belgium

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