Villingen Münster, Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany

Photo from Flickr, copyright joiseyshowaa

Historic Site of the week

Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

Alföldi Sándor (3 years ago)
Szép...mint minden ápolt templom.

Dirk Passenheim (3 years ago)
Historisch wertvoll. Immer mal wieder sehenswert.

Kwanghyun La (3 years ago)
성곽으로 둘러 싸여 있는 곳에 특이한 문양이 새겨져 있는 철문과 뭇근의 미 인지는 모르지만 특이한 조형물이 있는 외관과.. 이와 달리 안으로 들어가면 차분하면서도 엄숙한 분위기에 화려함이 있는 곳이다

Dirk Hertfelder (4 years ago)
Sehr schöner und stimmungsvoller Weihnachtsmarkt rund um das Münster. Zusammen ein toller Anblick, vor allem wenn es dunkel ist.

Carlo Pietrasanta (4 years ago)
I was here just before a wedding, the atmosphere was great. The orchestra was training and people inside the church were all entranced by their music. Very exciting.

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Broch of Gurness

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