The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-02-20
FABLED CITIES
SUBMERGED
Iegends of Towns So Wicked
They Were Buried
Under Water.

MANY OF those persons who have
been fortunate enough, due to ample
means of lucky circumstances of a
business or other nature, to spend a
holiday at many of the charming re
sorts dotting the coast line OF the Ger
man ocean will have been amused
(and, ~perchance, interested) by the
many tales and legends related as TO
submerged cities-all supramundane
trace of which has now disappeared.
of such cities which once We're famous
for their wealth, beauty and power, 1t
is whispered that their love of luxury,
their greed and cruelty led to the Of
tended and unseen powers above caus-
Ing the wave to rise in the night ana
engulf them forever. Not only are such
lecends rife on the coast, but even In
inland German towns many n a is
invested with a halo Of similar mys-
terry.
or these latter cases two OF the most
interesting relate to an old-tme city
named Buckow which Is said to rest
upon the bottom of Lake Schermuetzel.
In Brandenhurg; while lake Werbellln
"a most mysterious sheet Of water, &C
cording to folklore) conceals in Its
bosom a town of the same name; all
that remains of this latter Is the name
given to a small village, in memory OF
It's predecessor, 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 historical basis.
or, at best, q slight one (the Werbellin
story being based upon the disappear
ance Of a castle called Werbellln, one of
the Ascanian castles built In 1150-1170
by Albert the Bear. Margrave of
Brandenburg, and q contemporary OF
Frederick Barbarossa), this Is not so on
49, I~~~ thn 1n1arId nrn q j y-all
founded on fact, and, in most cases, the
salient features have lost but little Of
their original truth In the telling.
Lost Dutch City.
The most striking of all the legends
current In the coast towns Of the Ger
a ocean is that dealing with the lost
Dutch town of Stavoren, at the en-
trance to the Zuyder Zee. Here there
lived a rich and powerful woman, whose
pride. cruelty and selfishness aroused
he anger Of heaven, and caused the
wicked and misguided city to sink be-
heath the waves. A small portion of
she city (where the good people lived)
vas saved, and it's name still cleaves
20 the small town of Stavoren, which is
we'll known to every traveller going
~ water from Amsterdam to Lecu-
Warden and G~roningen. 1t is an indis-
putable fact that, in the thirteenth
century, Stavoren was a wealthy and
po"C l. 4Sldl III , LloWcNSt, dlo
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 present
time what is left of it only affords
shelter to about 500 souls. The roofs
and spires Of the now submarine build
ngs can, 1t is said, be often seen far
down in the depths when the sea is
still and the weather is clear, while
silent listeners on Christmas 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 sea-
side resort and island in the North sea,
will doubtless remember the small viii
lage of Wenningstedt. Although it's
present population is only SO persons,
It Is none the less commemorative of
he large commercial town Of Wen
ningstedt, which went to the bottom
Of the sea during a great food and
storm which took place January 16,
1862.
North Sea Victims.
Wenningstedt is by no means the
only town which once stood on the
shores Of Friesland n Holland, only
to meet with destruction at the hands
tor rather billows) of Old Hans" as
the Tristan familiarly terms the North
sea. AS a matter of fact, of all the
'Soo III lic Woilu II is the German
ocean alone which can establish q rec
ord for the umbe of towns, villages
md hamlets which 1t has either des-
troyed or engulfed. Since the 18th CEN
fury odd Hans" has devastated no less
man IA towns and villages, either by
swallowing them up entirely or else by
ourying them under heaps of sand.
The fate of the Dutch town OF Rung-
holt, which disappeared during q great
storm In the year 1887, is still sung and
old In story by the present day fisher
.olk of Holland.
The Baltic sea has not such a bad
record In catastrophes as "Old Hans"
Yet a halo of romance is thrown
around the legends told about this sea
by the story Of the wonderful town of
Vineta, chime from whose church
steeples may, at the fall of eventide, be
heard pealing family from the depths
81 the ocean. In the '7os Of the last
century articles were still published in
support OF the sometime existence of a
arge, fabulousfy wealthy Wendish city
named V1neta, which, in the middle
ages. nestled at the foo Of the Stalkel-
oerg at Usedom, nearly at the same al
titu6e at which the hamlet of Damerow
how stands. The legend states 1t was
totally destroyed by a food and earth
quake which occurred In the year 1888.
At M time the city of vineta was
marked on h Prussian maps. but
geological and historical investigations
made locally by Professor Virchow
Ind others have proved beyond doubt
that a town never could have stood
1pon the site indicated.
1 a#~ a Hll