Patriarchal Cross at Eichelein

In 1538, for example, the cross on the Eichelein was first erected, as reported by a Körtling from the same year, which we found in the crumbling wooden cross when we last erected the cross in 1967, along with many historical coins.

Why does this cross on the Eichelein have two crossbars, why does this cross with the two crossbars also protrude from the towers of our Catholic parish churches? Was it first built by the monks of the Charterhouse?

It is the so-called patriarchal cross, as it is called in the church language. It is carried in front of patriarchs and archbishops and it stands on gables and towers of churches and buildings that are not directly subordinate to the sovereign or diocesan. The Carthusians were still independent masters. The double crosses stood on their building. Estenfeld was a monastery courtyard. That is why the cross on the Eichelein was created with two crossbars, because we did not belong to the prince-bishop, but to the prior of the Charterhouse as his village. It can therefore be assumed that this cross was erected as a patriarchal cross immediately after the Peasants' War, at least at the suggestion of the monastery. Generations of us have inherited this legacy into our own time. The cross on the Eichelein is a reminder of the Carthusian monastery under whose rule Estenfeld had a good time.

Source: freundeskreis-kartause.de/kartause

From up here's a good view of Estenfeld.