THE STONE ON THE CHAIN (UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS)
A special story is connected to the Utrecht stone (city in the Netherlands), which is riveted to the corner house of the Eligenhof and the Oudegracht number 364. The large stone was originally placed there to protect the house from damage when towing cargo or driving cars. It was already there in 1520.
The stone on the chain
But there was something wrong with the stone, which looked so ordinary during the day. Imagine... at twelve o'clock at night at New Moon, when you stuck a pin in one of her pale veins, blood flowed out.
And that was not all! Not by a long shot...
In the middle of the night all kinds of evil spirits, giants, witches and sorcerers came. They danced around the stone. They marched with it over the boulders of the Oudegracht. They bounced like a ball back and forth from the Vollersbrug over the Oudegracht to the Geertebrug. Back and forth! Hoepla! Fuss!
It was a terrible noise and the citizens of Utrecht could not fall asleep from the noise. "But... a man shouldn't mock giants, wizards and witches," they said shaking their heads.
Finally it became too colourful anyway. Hear and see, you were wrong!
They held a parade at night and managed to banish all evil spirits from the dark waters of the moat. They were so frightened by this awesome human procession that they were never seen again. Just to be on the safe side, the boulder was put under restraint. And after that time no more blood came out of her veins. And Utrecht was, in the night, quieter and more peaceful than ever.
The Closed Stone is also called the Devil's Stone.
There are several legends about The Closed Stone. One of these legends is that the devil and his servant were throwing this stone at night between the nearby Geertebrug and Vollersbrug. In the event of an accident, the stone hit the ground with such a smack that the houses trembled on their foundations. The boulder was then chained (closed) to get rid of the rubble.
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