Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Celts in Alsace?

Just when I thought I was really understanding the history of Alsace my husband and I ran across something really interesting on a wine tour.

Lovely vines of domain Haegelin

We were at the Bollenberg with "HAEGELIN Materne et ses filles". In the field at the top of the hill  is, "La Chapelle des sorcieres du Bollenberg". The chapelle was built at the pinnacle where the magnetic field were the greatest.

View from the top of Bollenberg
This chapel, we were told, was a place of animal sacrifice to the Celtic god Bollen, or Belenos, the Shining One. Now it is a little Catholic chapel......

View of  La chapelle des socieres du Bollenberg
Why we asked was a Celtic God in Alsace? Well it turns out that Alsace is really so old that the Celtic people were in Alsace before the Romans! Wow.

In the vineyard of Bollenberg, at domain Haegelin


"In terms of a starting point, the Celts probably had their birthplace in the Alsace-Lorraine region of eastern France in the years between 1500-1000 B.C. This is roughly the time when Moses and King David were said to be active in Judea.

The Celts of this period were a Bronze Age people, although before long they became the first people north of the Mediterranean civilizations to use iron, giving the Celts a superior position in weapons and tools in their geographic region." 

Just when you thought you knew a lot, a whole new learning curve comes your way. 
More on the story of the Celts: The Ancient Celts is here



 
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