In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there. 

In earlier centuries, people used glacial erratics as places of worship, giving them names and legendary stories, placing Christian crosses and figures of saints on them, or even building entire churches around them. 

Read More: Check out all ghostly legends from Germany

One example is the Devil’s Stone, or the Teufelsstein, a boulder located at the edge of the forest between Grafrath and Inning am Ammersee. Only its upper half protrudes from the ground, shielded by the sprawling branches of coniferous trees.

In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
The Devil’s Stone: The Teufelsstein is an erratic boulder in the municipality of Inning am Ammersee in the district of Starnberg in Upper Bavaria. The boulder is 5–6 m³ and located next to a field path at the edge of the forest between the Grafrath district of Unteralting and the Inning district of Arzla. // Source: Wikimedia

The Legend when the Devil looked for Grafath

In this Bavarian legend, the devil wanted to destroy the St. Rasso pilgrimage church in Grafrath with a huge boulder he found in the Alps. As he rolled it towards the church, he encountered a clever peasant woman. She told him how incredibly far it was to go when he asked for directions. She had a basket full of torn shoes and told the devil that she had worn through all of them on her way from Grafrath.

In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
The pilgrimage church of St. Rasso: The pilgrimage church of St. Rasso with the tomb of St. Rasso is located on the edge of the Ampermoor in the municipality of Grafrath in the district of Fürstenfeldbruck in Upper Bavaria . For centuries, this church was one of the most important pilgrimage sites in southern Bavaria, attracting people from far and wide to bring their prayers before God. The pilgrimage route follows in the footsteps of Saint Rasso, who, as a count, ruled in the region between Lake Ammersee and Lake Starnberg during the early Middle Ages. The saint’s tomb was visited by numerous pilgrims from Bavaria, Swabia, and Tyrol as early as the Middle Ages. It is recorded that countless miracles are said to have occurred at this pilgrimage site. Pilgrims, especially those suffering from abdominal ailments, hoped for healing through their pilgrimage to Grafrath. //Wikimedia

Enraged, the devil vanished from the earth as lightning, leaving the stone behind. Since then, witches and devils have been said to dance at the famous Devil’s Stone, and many passersby have reported seeing them.

The Devil’s Stone near Grafrath lies at the edge of a hiking and cycling trail. The Devil’s Stone itself shimmers reddish in places. Conspiracy theorists might see this as evidence of bloody rituals. The more mundane explanation is that the stone, partially covered in moss, has been painted.

Where Did the Devil’s Stones Come from?

But where does the Devil’s Stone really come from? If not the devil himself placed them, then what? The explanation lies 20,000 years ago when the Würm Ice Age was at its peak, and average temperatures in Europe are far below today’s. As the Ice Age subsided, the glacier tongue melted and retreated. What remained was a carved-out valley of today’s Ammersee, from which the Amper River flows. Heaped hills of debris and sand transported by the glacier as well as a single large boulder, which had previously broken off from a mountain in the Central Alps.

This is the scientific explanation for these Ice Age “erratic boulders,” as they are also known in technical terms – rocky “wanderers,” in other words, that lie in a place where they don’t actually belong.

The Devil’s Stone in Bräundlstein

The Devil’s stone in Grafrath is not the only boulder stone with a similar story. There’s the Bräundlstein, for example, a colossal boulder of about 70 cubic meters in the forest between Wasserburg am Inn and Schnaitsee. A legend about the devil is also associated with this. 

In the Alpine foothills in Bavaria, strange boulders mark the landscape. Many legends linger over these mysterious stones, some claiming it was the Devil himself who placed it there.
Bräundlstein: It measures approximately 4.50 × 4.50 × 3.50 m, but was formerly even larger until it was approved as a building material in the 19th century. The name of the boulder possibly means “Brundhildenstein” and has been known since at least 1844.Source: Wikimedia

One day, a stable girl was herding cows and wandered into the woods, where she saw the devil himself sitting on the Bräundlstein rock. He had a pile of horse manure on his lap, which he distributed into several bowls, and the stable girl was also forced to put some of it in her apron pocket. Thereupon, the devil vanished, and the manure turned into pure gold, which, however, brought no luck. Even today, hollow-shaped depressions are said to be visible on the rock where the devil’s bowls had stood.

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References:

7 wahre urbane Legenden aus München

Das Geheimnis der Findlinge von Joachim Burghardt | Innehalten

Teufelsstein (Inning am Ammersee) – Wikipedia

St. Rasso (Grafrath) – Wikipedia

SZ-Serie “Sagen und Mythen”, Folge 18 – Höllische Plackerei – Fürstenfeldbruck

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