Swedish Column

"December 1631 - Thirty Years War" ...
We are standing on historical ground: a military masterpiece for the time.
Last but not least, the course of the Rhine has also changed here: The Swedes crossed on the right bank of the Rhine to the left bank - today both are on the right bank of the Rhine ... 😉

At this point, the King of Sweden, Gustav-Adolf, crossed the Rhine on barges and barn gates in the 30 Years War, thereby bypassing the opposing troops

The Swedish Column is a monument in the Kühkopf-Knoblochsaue nature reserve in Hesse. It commemorates the crossing of the Rhine by the Swedish King Gustav Adolf and his troops during the Thirty Years' War at Hahnensand near Erfelden on December 21, 1631. The twelve-meter-high column was erected in 1632 on the orders of Gustav Adolf by the fortress builder Matthäus Staud. Ludwig Bechstein describes it in his German Book of Legends, published in 1853, as "a tall column resting on four balls that support the pedestal, in the shape of an obelisk. On top it bore the seated Swedish heraldic lion with a helmeted and crowned head, holding a sword and orb in its front paws." This is how the column still appears today. The lion is looking in the direction in which the crossing took place, the battlefield and the Swedish cemetery. However, the Swedish Column is no longer in its original location. It was built in the 18th century due to the threat of erosion