The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1907-12-24
FabIed Cities SUBMERGED
BY ARTHUR n. J. kEANE.


been fortunate enough, due to ample
means or lucky circumstances of
business or other nature, to spend a
holiday at many of the charming re-
sorts dotting the coast line OF the
German Ocean, will have been
amused (and perchance interested)
by the many tales and legends re-
lated as to submerged cities-all SUI
pramundane trace OF which has now
disappeared. OF such cities which
once were famous for their wealth,
beauty and power, it is whispered
that their love Of luxury, their greed
and cruelty led to the offended and
unseen Powers Above causing the
waves to rise in the night and engulf
them for ever. Not only are such
legends rife on the coast, but even
in inland German towns many a lake
is invested with a halo of similar
mystery.
OF these latter cases, two of the
most interesting relate to an old
time city named Buckow, which is
said to rest upon the bottom of Lake
Schermutzel in Bradenburg, while
Lake Werbellin Ga most mysterious
sheet Of water, according to folk
lore) conceals in it's bottom a town
of the same name; all that remains
of this latter is the name given to
small village, in memory OF its pre-
decessor, which now stands not far
from the point where the former
town stood.
Although most of the stories rife
in Germany as to vanished towns in
the interior have no actual histori-
cal basis, or at best slight one (the
Werbellin story being based upor the
disappearance of a castle called Wer-
bellin. one of the Ascanian castles
built in 1150-1170 by Albert the
Bear, Margrave of Brandenburg, and
a contemporary of Frederick Barba-
rossa), this is not so on the coast;
here the legends are all we'll founded
on fact, and, in most cases, the salient
features have lost but little of their
original truth in the telling.
THE most striking Of all the legends
current in the coast towns of the
German Ocean is that dealing with
the lost Dutch town OF Stavoren at
the entrance of the Zuyder Zee. Here
there lived a rich and powerful lady,
whose pride, cruelty and selfishness
aroused the anger of heaven. and
caused the wicked and misguided
city to sink beneath the waves. A
small portion of the city (where the
good people lived) was saved, and it's
name still cleaves to the small town
| of Stavoren, which is we'll known
to every traveller going by water from
Amsterdam to Leeuwarden and Gro
ningen. 1t is an undisputable fact
that, in the thirteenth century, Sta
voren was a wealthy and powerful
commercial city; however, due partly
to the port becoming choked with
sand. and partly to the Eruption of
the Zuyder Zee in 1877, it rapidly
lost its Importance. and at the pres
ont time what is left of it only affords
shelter to about 500 souls. The roofs
and spires of the now submarine
buildings can. it is said, be often
| seen far down in the depths when
the sea is still and the weather is
clear, while silent listeners on Christ
mas Eve will hear the distant and
muffled tone of church bells arising
from the depths, only to break in
bubbles and ripples on the surface
of the Zuyder Zee.
Visitors to Sylt. the well-known
seaside resort and island in the
| North Sea. will doubtless remember
| the small village OF Wenningstedt
Although its present population is
only fifty persons, it is none the less
| commemorative of the large CONNER
cial town Of Wenningstedt, which
went to the bottom of the sea during
a great food and storm which took
| place on the 18th of January, 1862.
Wenningstedt is by no means the
/ only town which once stood on the
! shores of Friesland and Holland. only
to meet with destruction at the hands
| Cor rather billows) of "Old Hans, .
! as the Tristan Familiarity terms the
/ North Sea. AS a matter of fact, oil
all the seas in the world 1t is the
/ German Ocean alone which can es
| tablish a record for the number OF
| towns, villages and hamlets which Il
] has either destroyed or engulfed
| Since the eleventh century "OlC
| Hans" has devastated no less thar
/ 40 towns and villages, either by
swallowing them up entirely or else
\ by burying them under heaps of sand
/ The fate of the Dutch town of Rung
holt. which disappeared during &
great storm In the year 1897, is still
sung and told in story by the present
| uay fisherfolk Of Holland.
The Baltic Sea has not such a bad
/ record in catastrophes as "Old Hans
/ Yet a halo of romance is thrown
I around the legends told about this
/ sea. by the story of the wonderful
town OF Vineta chimes from whose
church stecples may, at the fall o.
| eventide. be heard pealing family
from the depths OF the ocean In tn,
seventies of the last century article.
were still published I'm support oil
the sometime existence OF a large
. fabulously wealthy Wendish city
named Vineta. which. I'm the middle
ages. nestled at the foot Of the Sta
/ kelberg at Usedom. nearly at the
same altitude at which the hamlet Of
/ Damcrow now stands The legenC
states that 10 was totally destroyed
by a flood and earthquake which oc
Cured I'm the year 1888. At on,
time the city Of Vineta was marked
ON the Prussian maps. but geological