Richelsley
The Richelsley, also written Richel Ley, is an 80-metre-long and up to 12-metre-high rock formation on the edge of the High Fens, part of the Eifel Mountains, in Belgium. It bears a large cross and is a well-known pilgrimage site. Ley is a German word for "crag" or "rock".
Name
The name is supposed to have been given to it in the 12th century by Richwin, the founder of Richwinstein Castle, today Reichenstein Abbey.Geography
Location
The Richelsley is located in Belgium's Wallonia region, in the Liège Province multi-language municipality of Waimes, close to the German border near Reichenstein/Monschau Abbey.Geology
The rock formation is a Devonian conglomerate, formed over 400 million years ago. It is incorrectly described in various documents as a megalith. It is however made of sedimentary rock that contains quartz, whose present shape and extent are a result of the natural erosion of the surrounding sediment.History
The cross was erected in 1890 by the priest, Gerhard Joseph Arnoldy, who worked from 1869 to 1914 in Kalterherberg and was the builder of the present Eifel Cathedral. He had it built at his own expense for 800 gold marks to commemorate the monk, Stephan Horrichem. Horrichem, known as the "Apostle of the Fens", was the prior of the nearby Premonstratensian abbey of Reichenstein from 1639 to 1686 and worked tirelessly for the people of the High Fens who were endangered during the Thirty Years' War.The novel Das Kreuz im Venn by Clara Viebig, appeared around 1908, made the Richelsley, which lies in the middle of woods, and its cross well known beyond the Eifel mountain region in which they are found.