Rolandsbrunnen

(Roland's Well or Spring)

We came upon this well while on a Volksmarsch, walking in the Kohltal, or Charcoal Valley,  between Waldfischbach and Heltersberg in the southwestern section of the Palatinate Forest.  It is an area a few miles north of Pirmasens in Germany.

The water comes from a small cliff or rock formation, through three openings.  A concrete basin has been built to collect the water, and a run off channel to lead it away, across the road to a small brook running down the valley.

A statue of a saint holding a crucifix (St. Bernard preaching the Crusades?) stands in a niche in the rock face.  At the base of the rock is a much dilapidated model of a wooden chapel.  Just to the west of the rock basin and on the rock face itself, there was some slight evidence of a building of some sort, perhaps a well chapel or a hermit's cell.

Roland was one of Charlemagne's paladins, famed for his part in the wars against the Moors.  Roland is venerated as a hero of early Christianity in several other sites in Germany.

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